Legacy of the Sealmasters
by iwishiwashinasboyfriend
Summary: The three with Sealmaster blood running through their veins are born. Their time has come to show the world what the great Demonclan is capable of. Naruto of the Foxs, Gaara of the Racoons, And Kamibatsu of the dragons. Time for Chaos. Hope your ready.
1. Rebirth

**AN: Hello and welcome to Part Two of my Sealmaster series. I decided to go with Clash of the Byju as it had a higher response rate than Fall of the Kage. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, I suggest you read Origin of the sealmasters, first. Also sorry I took so long. I had to go do some army training in Virginia. I am back now and posting this, the first chapter of... The Legacy of the Sealmasters. Read, Review, but mostly! ENJOY!  
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**Chapter I**

**Rebirth**

A few months after the attack of the nine tailed beast on the ninja village Konoha, an unusual event was occurring elsewhere. A woman was finally giving birth to twins. Her husband had though to have been sterile for years, when out of the blue she became pregnant. Both of them were overjoyed.

Now the time had finally come for her to give birth to those twins. The doctor was still confused. The woman had been six months pregnant before they found out she had twins on the way. Now that she was giving birth both babies seemed healthy from a medical standpoint. But then they were still inside the woman, she would be giving birth any minute now.

The first one was a boy who came out covered in all sorts of black stuff. This was a cause for concern, as normally they came out covered in fluids from the womb. They tried to wipe the black stuff off, only to find out it wouldn't come off. He seemed to have an odd skin pigment, however he seemed healthy so they decided to look farther into it later. The then proceeded to smack his backside to get him to cry, which is usually a sign of a healthy baby. However he not only didn't cry, but he actually opened his eyes. And looked towards the doctor holding him. The doctor nearly dropped him when he saw the eyes. Unlike normal baby eyes which are a light blue, for awhile till they start to gain color. His were green, with a slit for a pupil.

The doctor stammered something unintelligible and the head doctor came over to see what the problem was. The first doctor watched as the eyes changed to look like normal eyes, by the time the head doctor came over there were simply green. He was slightly startled by the color but figured it must be some genetic trait inherited from his family. Going over to help the woman birth the other one it came out as a girl. Unlike the boy she had no strange markings and normal baby eyes.

The doctors handed both the babies to the mother who was overjoyed, as she had been once told that this event would be impossible for them. Now she not only had a child, but twins. One doctor noticed yet another strange thing about the baby with the odd markings. Unlike the girl he didn't look at anyone or anything, he felt with his hands. His twin sister he felt her face for several seconds before hugging her tightly.

The doctor was a bit concerned by this and took his flashlight and shined it in the eyes to see how much the boys eyes dilated. After a minute or two he took the father aside and talked to him. "I'm sorry sir, but the boy... is blind."

The father just stared at the doctor for awhile before saying "Are you serious? My son can't be blind! I have waited so many years to have a son to take the family business one day when I retire! A blind boy won't be able to do anything!" Furious he stalked over to where the twins lay in his wife's arms, and stared down at this failure. He had finally overcome the obstacle of being sterile, and now his son was blind! What had he done to deserve this? Truly the gods hated him.

He was just getting ready to leave when his wife said "So what should we name them? I was thinking something to represent our happiness?"

He stopped and said "I'll let you name the girl. I shall name the boy however. Agreed?" She nodded her head knowing how much having a boy meant to him. He then stopped and said the name for the boy then walked out the door. The girl was named Mikoto. The boy was named Kamibatsu. Which translates into Gods punishment.

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A little blond boy, around the age of five wandered around this hostile village, which had given him life, and seemed so determined to make that life completely miserable. Even though he was only five he understood what it meant to be hated. For he was hated... by nearly everyone in the village. He didn't know why, but he didn't have tom to know it was true. In front of their children adults scorned him and deliberately humiliated him. That was when they were nice. When their children were not around was when they truly got mean. Shaking his head he cleared his mind of "Those" thoughts. There was only one man in the village of Konoha that treated him like a human being, the leader of the village himself no less. But he couldn't be there all the time.

Even at the age of five he had his own apartment, as well as an allowance for food. Someone came in once a week to clean it, and do his laundry. He made sure he was never there at the time as the lady usually deliberately did a worse job when he was around. This was all paid for by the Hokage as well. He didn't really understand why he was so nice, just like he didn't understand why everyone else was so mean. But for the same reasons he didn't need to understand. It was enough that he cared. This little boys name was Naruto, although people never called him that. The Hokage was the only one who did. Sometimes he even felt he would forget his name, at times like this he would sneak into the Hokage's office and play a prank on him, just to hear him say his name.

Sometimes he would go to one of the outlying playgrounds to play by himself, but he made sure no other kids were there. Because of their parents influence they all treated him as inferior as well. But that was ok, what was worst was when they ignored him completely. Like he didn't exist. At times like these he would act out trying to get attention any way he could. Because when they reacted it proved he DID exist... it proved he was alive. For this five year old that was enough. At times he cried because it felt like it was just to much. But every time he would think to himself. "Crying never ends by itself. You have to end it yourself." He had learned never to cry in front of anyone, as they always made fun of him. That was one of the few ways he had decided he would never use to get attention.

This time he scouted out the different playgrounds, trying to find one that was empty. In between one playground and another he heard loud voices. This usually meant someone was going to throw something at him again, and yell, as if he had done something wrong. He had come to the conclusion that he caused things to go wrong by just being around, although he was unsure what those things were. This time he discovered he was not the target of the loud voices. Sneaking closer he saw it was a woman yelling at the top of her lungs at some man. She was saying something about cheating, and that he didn't really love her. Naruto didn't really understand this "cheating" as he didn't see a test sheet nearby. He decided it was another of the things he would understand later.

The woman continued to yell and the man kept trying to interrupt her, to no avail. Finally he wrapped her in a close hug and pressed his lips to hers, at first she struggled, but then she leaned against him and returned with her own arms wrapping around him. Naruto was awestruck. He realized he had learned something very important. Apparently even if a woman was really angry with you, you could make her be quiet by pressing your lips against hers. He briefly considered doing that to the old woman who cleaned his apartment, but for some reason it made him feel sick to his stomach. He decided it probably shouldn't be used on someone you didn't like. He decided to think on it further later. He had to find a playground before it got dark, the people of this village got really scary after dark.

Finally he found one that wasn't occupied. He began to pretend that he had a friend playing with him, as "they" ran around the swings merrily. This friend never yelled at him, and always thought his ideas were good ones. He didn't talk much but that was ok, it was nice to have someone who just listened to him. "They" went over to the sandbox and began to draw funny animals. Shortly after they began he heard voices coming. Running he hid inside a hallowed log that was used for crawling through, like a tunnel. Some men made a hasty inspection of the area before deciding that no one else was there. They called an all clear and said it was safe. He heard them walk off a distance and go sit on some of the benches that were on the other side of the playground.

Deciding they wouldn't be able to see him if he escaped into the woods nearby he scurried out of the log and ran full force... into a little girl. They both fell to the ground. He got up rubbing his head, luckily it hadn't hurt that bad, although it was be a little sore for about ten minutes or so. It was then he got a good look at the girl. She was about his age and had violet colored hair, and lavender eyes... which at the moment were filling up with tears. Suddenly he realized she was going to cry. If she did that those men would hear and come over here, and they would probably be really mad. He really didn't want that, bruises from adults usually lasted for several days when they got mad at him. So he did the first thing that came to his mind. He pressed his lips against hers.

Her eyes widened until he could swear they took up half her face. But at least she didn't look like she was going to cry anymore. For some reason her face was really red, he supposed that was normal for someone who had been going to cry. "Please don't tell anyone. If you don't I'll do anything you want I promise." He said in a hurry. For some reason it felt like his face was on fire. It was really red too although he couldn't see. She just nodded her head, deciding this was his chance he scurried away as fast as he could. He didn't stop running until he was safely home, by which time it was nearly dark. It was then he thought back about the little girl. He had forgotten to get her name. And now that he thought about it she was really cute too. Then he considered some of the other things about her he hadn't paid to much attention to at the moment. Her clothes had seemed really fancy, not like his which were third rate, and thats if you have a low standard to begin with.

He kind of wanted to see her again. Unlike the other children he had met she hadn't turned up her nose the instant she laid eyes on him. Granted she had probably been busy about to cry but still, she seemed different. She just didn't seem the type to be mean for no reason. From then on he decided that would be the park he went to. If other people were there he would just watched from the woods. Maybe he would get to see her again, and maybe if he was really lucky he would get a real friend. A real someone who wouldn't call him names, or throw rocks at him, while their parents watched smiling. For the first time in his life he felt something... something warm inside his chest. He didn't know what it was, but he wanted desperately to keep it. He didn't know it... but this feeling was called hope.

The next day Naruto was walking around town during midday, at which time most people are busy at work or something similar. Which meant he could wander freely without many cold glares. He noticed a new shop that had been set up. He couldn't read yet so he decided to see if he could tell what they sold by getting closer. It turned out to be someone from out of town, and what he was selling was called ramen. He had never had it before but he noticed the prices were a lot cheaper than most places. He brought out his wallet and asked for a bowl. The man was overjoyed. He had just opened today and this was his first customer. He would do his best to make sure this kid spread the word about how good his shop was. A few minutes later he set a steaming bowl of ramen in front of the little blond boy named Naruto.

At first he sat there just looking at it. A little drool was starting to run down the side of his mouth before the owner raised his voice and said "You gonna eat that or let it get cold?" Naruto did a double take and realized this was actually for him. Most of the places he ate gave him the worst service possible, and as a result the food wasn't very good either. But this food looked like the most delicious meal he had ever seen. The owner turned his back to get a rag to polis his counter top while he waited for Naruto to finish his meal. But the instant he turned around he saw an empty bowl and a person who's eyes literally glowed. "More please!" the first feeling the owner felt was shock. The bowl was bigger than the kids head, how had he finished it in less than a minute? Hurrying back he brought another bowl and set it before him. This time he watched as the kid literally inhaled it. At first he was pleased. After the sixth bowl he was beginning to get annoyed. Granted he was happy his ramen tasted good, but this kid was making it look like they weren't very filling.

Grabbing a bowl of his own he ate it just to make sure something wasn't wrong with it. One bowl was enough. Watching the kid devour one bowl after another he wondered where he put it all. He also became concerned that he wasn't getting enough to eat normally. He began to ask questions as the kid continued to eat. He gleaned that he lived alone at only five years old. That the closest thing to a guardian he had was the Hokage himself, it also seemed that everything cost a lot more than he thought it did. After the kid eventually left he closed up shop and walked around the town checking prices... they were drastically lower than the kid had told him. He wasn't sure if he had simply been exaggerating or if they were purposely overcharging the little boy. On his off time he began some investigations into the matter, he found out quickly no one liked the boy, and that they were less than inclined to talk about him in any way but calling him vile and foul, but never quite mentioning why. Eventually he gave up. He didn't know why people treated this kid worse than dirt, but he would be damned if he did. From then on he saw Naruto nearly every day, as that became pretty much the only place he ate.

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A red haired boy wandered the streets of the desert village that was called Suna. Recently his world had been turned upside down when the only person who had ever been nice to him attempted to kill him. Having no real destination in mind he continued to wander. Years ago Suna had captured one of the tailed beasts hoping to turn it into an all powerful weapon that would assure their dominance over the other villages. But the had come to realize that with some things, the danger outweighed the advantages. This boy was named Gaara, and had the One tailed raccoon sealed within his tiny body. The power to control sand as easily as one of his own limbs was contained within.

The one person who had ever shown him kindness had tried to kill him on orders from his father, the man who had cursed him to have this demon in the first place. As he walked by people would hurry indoors, terrified of this five year old demon-child. So he continued his lonely walk through the town. He didn't pay attention or notice, that sand followed him, creeping after him, the silent bodyguard. Once he had tried suicide, he attempted to cut his own wrist. But this sand which protected him from all harm, prevented him from even being injured by himself. Physical pain was something he had never experienced in his entire life. The sand always protected him. At first he hated it. This demon inside him was the reason for everything bad in his life. He had found out that his mother had been sacrificed against her will to seal it within him. Because of the demon he had no mother. Because of the demon he had no friends. Because of the demon everyone hated him. Because of the demon his own father wanted him dead.

But after the only person who had ever shown him kindness had died, he no longer hated the demon. He hated the humans instead. They were the ones who had cursed him with this. They had betrayed him and wanted him dead. He made a vow, to drown the world in blood. At a mere five years old he had determined that he was the enemy of all humanity. At that time he heard a voice, egging him on. Begging for blood, begging for vengeance. At first he could not figure out who it was, but then it occurred to him. His long lost mother lived on in him. He would gain vengeance for her. From that day forwards, he killed anyone who made him angry. The fear they had before was nothing. He became that fear and showed the its deepest meaning, and in doing so became an embodiment of the demon Onaga's prediction. Even though they feared him they still used him, and he became a tool for pure bloodshed. Raised with nothing in mind but killing, he knew nothing else. Conceived in anger, born in anger, anger was the meaning of his life. The one who loved only himself, as no man or woman would give him their love.

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A man had recently woken up in the hospital. He had been in a coma for these last five years since the nine tails attack. He and his men had been fighting, but had lost despise how incredibly skilled they had been. The only reason he was alive was one of his men had used a special transportation jutsu on him. Time space jutsu was incredibly difficult. It had cost his brother his life, using it to save his life. And even then the blast from that demon that wiped out the rest of his brothers caused such an injury that he had been in a coma for the last five years. Revenge? Oh yes he would have it. But on a different demon than most people in the village hated. The final Demonhunter had awoken. And soon it would be hunting time, open season on dragons.

**AN: Bwahahahahaha! End of chapter one. What did you think? Were you surprised to find out one of the demonhunters survived? RAWR! Prepare NaruXHina shalt be born! It was kinda just an intro, sorry it was so short after such a long time. But things have been busy in real life. Anyways leave reviews! I enjoy them possibly more than you enjoy my writing. (Not hard considering I'm not really that good but hey.) Chapter two shouldn't take nearly as long to complete. And thats a PROMISE!**


	2. Angels are Slavedrivers

**AN: Sorry its been so long guys. I even had a few emails asking if I had died or something similar. Well I assure you I am mostly alive. I don't count the undead part really so its all good. This chapter isn't super action oriented, so sorry if it's not what you were hoping for. Next one will be back to blood, gore, and chaos again. I'll try to throw some semblance of a plot into it if I have time too *wink*. Don't forget reviews! They feed me, and force me to actually finish chapters.**

**Angels are Slavedrivers**

Naruto eagerly snuck through the bushes toward his goal. A small hole that was located in the outer wall of the Hyuuga compound. Even though there were regular sweeps to make sure it was secure, this hole was located just so it was impossible to see unless you knew where it was. The bloodline limit of the Hyuuga family was known as the Byakugan. It allowed the user to see in 360 degree radius around them, through virtually any object... when it was activated. For various reasons, the clans council disallowed the use of the Byakugan inside the compound itself, except for in designated areas, which were used for training.

The Hyuuga were very strict on protocol therefore this breach in their security went unnoticed. However even so the hole was small enough no one but a very small child could fit through anyways. The small child taking advantage of this was Naruto.

He had met a young girl from the Hyuuga main family a two years back, and they had become fast friends. Now they met as regularly as they could, without getting caught by the family itself. Often times they would meet and he would tell jokes, or she would talk about the clan and its rules, at which he would nod his head about some things and crack more jokes about others. Sometimes they would meet just for the company.

Neither of them had any other friends, him because the majority of the village despised him, although he didn't know why. She had no other friends because "The Hyuuga did not associate with the other clans for social functions." And the branch family existed only to serve the main family, therefore being friends with them would not be allowed. Friends were an option that the Hyuuga council considered unnecessary for their heiress. This time they were meeting in a section of the garden that was rarely used.

There was one other "Activity" that Naruto and Hinata engaged in when they simply wanted eachothers company. Sometimes they "Hold" eachother. For one such as him who had never received affection from a parent, or any other source she was almost like the sister he never had. For her who commonly received compliments from people who really didn't know her, false smiles from strangers, and a pat on the head in passing from someone simply because it was the thing to do, real affection such as she got from Naruto was one of a kind, and irreplaceable.

Today was one such day. When they met up in the back they sat down behind some bushes and simply held eachother. Naruto had no jokes to tell, and Hinata had no stories about the clan, so they just sat there together, enjoying eachothers company. After a while Hinata spoke up. "My father told me that I'm going to start school soon. He has really high expectations of me, I don't know if I can do as good as he wants me to."

Naruto was quiet for a moment then he spoke. "Old man Hokage said something about that to me a few days ago. I blew him off at the time, but if your going to do it then I will to. Even if alone we don't do to great, together I'm sure we can do awesome! That and if we are classmates then I'm sure we will have an excuse to spend more time together."

Hinata nodded her head. Looking at it that way, she was sure they could do it. And with Naruto's help she might even be able to impress her father. Silence once again settles between them, and peaceful contentment settled over them both. Slowly but surely they drifted off to sleep.

Awhile later they woke to hear voices calling for her. One last hug goodbye and they parted ways, him creeping silently through the bushes, and her sneaking along the paths so as to come out in a different location so as not to give away their hiding spot. From there Naruto headed straightaway to the Hokages tower. Stopping just long enough to grab a toad from a creek along the way.

Reaching the receptionists office he stealthily got behind a potted plant, then launched the toad at the receptionist. It landed in her lap. A shrill shriek filled the air and she could be seen sprinting from the room calling for the closest ninja, saying a monster had appeared out of thin air. Naturally the chunnin who showed up was mildly disappointed to find a toad smaller than a mouse croaking away on the floor, a bit alarmed at the state of panic. Placing the toad outside he assured the young lady that the "Monster" was indeed gone. After several minutes she finally took her seat again. This was the third time this week she had been "Assaulted" by a toad. She was sure they were conspiring to get her.

In the confusion a certain blond haired little boy had slipped past unnoticed and was heading to the Hokages office. Reaching the door he took a deep breath, let it out, then he jerked the door open and jumped to the side. Piles of paperwork came falling out on the spot where he had been standing. He was almost completely certain that the old man was spending more time piling all the paperwork against the door, than he spent actually working on it.

Maneuvering his way through the piles of fallen paper he saw the Hokage in all his glory... taking a nap. Well this certainly wouldn't do, he needed to talk to him. Walking up to his desk, Naruto blew in his ear. Seeing no reaction he licked his finger and was about to stick it in his ear, then though better of it. Taking a piece of paper he put it in his mouth and began to chew on it, afterwards he rolled it in a ball, then applied his finishing touch. He worked up a lugi of incredible proportions and spat it on the paper ball. Taking his slimy spitwad, he attempted to thrust it in the sleeping mans ear.

At the last possible moment the Hokage caught his hand and said "Now now, where exactly were you planning on putting that may I ask? The old man turned his face to him with a smile, showing he had been awake the entire time.

Naruto snorted. "Payback for trying to kill me with that mountain of paperwork at the door."

The Hokage shook his head. "Don't blame me, blame all those people that try to kill an old man by working him to death. Their the ones who keep putting more and more paperwork in here. Besides how many times do I have to tell you, don't jerk the door open. Open it gently and the paperwork won't fall."

Naruto didn't believe him. "If I open it slow then I won't have time to get out of the way. I bet the food here is so awful you just want a flat Naruto for dinner instead."

The Hokage laughed. "Oh you caught me. Guess I'll have to find another way to skip out on the food here. Well anyways what brings you here this time? Young kids like you should be getting home before it gets dark out."

Naruto replied "Hey I'm not young! I'm just not old like you. I'm seven and a half! And I thought it over and since you seem to want me in your precious school so bad, I guess I'll go. But only if I get to pick where I sit." Folding his arms Naruto thought he handled that very well.

Sarutobi chuckled to himself. Naruto obviously had found himself a friend, and found out that friend would be going as well. Who this friend was he was unsure. He was almost certain that the child's parents knew nothing of it, as most adults in the village would never allow such a thing, as friendship with this boy. Well far be it from him to separate Naruto from his newfound precious person. "Ah, well you drive a hard bargin, most teachers decide where their students sit, but since you leave me no choice, I will see to it."

Naruto tightly concealed his excitement, and proclaimed "Very well. Send me a message before it starts, for now I must get ready. And clean up your papers old man! This so called office is worse than my room." With that he trounced out the door.

Sarutobi chuckled. Then he got up and walked over to the door and closed it. "Now to set that blasted paperwork back up to ambush the next person who comes bringing me more." And his next trap began its construction.

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Gaara was watching the sunset from the roof of his residence, when a jounin appeared. "Gaara-sama, the Kazekage has decreed that you will be entering the ninja academy soon. Your older brother and sister have already entered and should be able to help you in your studies. Any further questions will be directed at the Hokage himself." With that he disappeared. Everyone hated being near the seven year old, red headed demonchild. Any seven year old who had a bloodlust that could match an Anbu's was not someone most people like to spend time with.

Meanwhile Gaara pondered this new information. The academy meant learning how to become stronger, which meant he could kill more people. Mother demanded more blood. Like any good son, he would do anything to keep his mother happy. He would bring tides of blood to wash away this scourge called humanity. Only when no more existed would her bloodthirst be sated. And then she would give him all her love. He was sure of it.

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"I'm at a loss doctor. I know it's normal for twins to like to spend time together, but he won't go anywhere without her. He constantly ignores us, as his parents, and won't even play with his toys by himself, or anyone else but her. Even when he is with her he rarely does more that just sit there. He's always incredibly withdrawn. He eats so little that I'm afraid he will die of malnutrition. And I can't punish him because I'm not even sure he would understand why." A woman spoke to the child psychologist desperately.

He nodded taking in everything she said. Finally after she finished he replied. "Well ma'am, I already see several reasons. First your husband is obviously upset that his only son is incapable of succeeding that family business, due to his condition. Therefore he pretty much ignores the child, and your being afraid to punish him means he has had no real discipline... ever. Also physical punishment is not the only way to deal with bad children. For instance since he is blind I have little doubt his hearing is a bit more developed than most children."

Standing up the doctor called for him. "Kamibatsu, your mother would like you to come here." Seeing no reaction he walked several steps closed to where he sat watching his sister who was playing with some toys. Once again he called, and once again he was ignored. Finally he walked right up behind him and called again. Seeing no reaction he slapped his hands together loudly behind his head. Kamibatsu flinched at the suddenly loud noise.

Kamibatsu stood up and faced the doctor. The doctor appeased at his obedience turned to speak to the mother when he heard Kamibatsu say something. Leaning over he asked "What did you say Kamibatsu? You need to speak louder for me to hear you."

Kamibatsu looked directly at his face and said "I said idiots who make loud noises behind someones head need to learn better." With that he full force punched the doctor's nose. The force of the blow sent him reeling.

To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. Although Kamibatsu had a small stature, even for a normal seven year old, his strength told a different story. The doctor was completely sure his nose was broken, and the blood that kept flowing from it confirmed that.

Kamibatsu satisfied that he had made his point sat back down and continued to "watch" his sister play with her toys, joining in only now and then when she asked.

The doctor after plugging his nose walked back to the mother. In a stuffy voice he said "I'm sorry ma'am, it seems to have gotten farther than I originally expected. Typical procedures won't be effective I'm afraid. I will go back to my office and prepare the books that will have the procedures for this. I will return in a few days." Gathering up his few notebooks he left, one goal set in his mind. He would teach this child discipline... and he didn't care if it killed him.

Kamibatsu smiled to himself as he heard the doctor leave. He never did like doctors. Still this small body was frustrating. It had taken nearly all his strength just to break the mans nose. Back as his adult self he could had simply backhanded the man across the room with little to no effort.

Although it truly was an interesting experience. When he had been a child before, it was as a dragon. He wondered if playing with these "Toys" would have been enjoyable then. Mikoto certainly seemed to enjoy them. Of course he would normally laugh at the concept of toys but, he was with her. He had spent years separated from her, and now he would endure anything to keep her. Even pretending stuffed animals were alive, and that they somehow were him. Vaguely he remembered playing with stuffed animals with Yuki as a little girl.

Memories from "Before" were a bit fuzzy sometimes. Only two things did he remember crystal clear. Every thing about Mikoto, when she had been Maemi. And all his combat knowledge. Seals, jutsu, weapon forms, taijutsu, were all more clear than what he ate from breakfast this morning. Yet the first word his own daughter had spoke was difficult to remember. It occurred to him he would be a grandfather if he had made it back to Konoha with a demon ready to be sealed. A grandson or granddaughter which would be slightly older than him. He found the concept funny for some reason.

Suddenly it occured to him people might find it strange that his sister was actually his wife, and soulmate. Thats right, humans disliked that sort of thing. Demons didn't have a problem with it any more than animals, yet humans found it disgusting. Amusing to say the least. Oh well he never really cared to much for humans thoughts on his personal matters, and he wasn't about to start now.

On a side note he wondered how to get his soulstone back. When he had used the jutsu to bring Maemi back he had used it as an anchor for her, by attaching it to her soul. Since it was an extension of his own soul it kept hers from going to the afterlife.

Suddenly he heard a familiar noise. He sighed as he knew that this noise meant. None of the "Humans" in the room had hearing acute enough to for this particular pitch. Getting up he stumbled towards the bathroom keeping up the act of being clumsy, and virtually helpless. Closing the door behind him he said just loud enough for someone in the same room as him to hear. "Ok, I'm alone. What do you want?"

A man appeared out of thin air. This wasn't ninjutsu, or any other special technique known to mankind. This mas was able to do this by quite different means, but then thats to be expected, after all he was an angel. "You have been slacking Neo Bahamut. It's been nearly eight years since you preformed your duties as a tailed beast. Don't tell me you have forgotten?"

Kamibatsu sighed before replying. "I have been working almost non-stop for a few thousand years. You begrudge me a few years vacation? Besides it's not like the others can't do it, there is nine of us after all. It can't be that hard for one of them to kill those on the hitlist for a few years."

The angel named Gabriel sighed. Apparently Neo Bahamut aka Kamibatsu, didn't know. "Your the only one who hasn't been sealed inside a human at the moment. Shortly after your battle with Kyuubi, he was sealed by a human in Konoha. If anything more work has piled up with them gone than anything. I would normally have no problem with you taking a few years vacation, but ALL of the other tailed beasts are unable to do anything right now."

Kamibatsu snorted. "You expect me to believe some mere human sealed the nine tails? Don't be ridiculous. Even I was unable to beat him. Without the artifact that my clan held a human would be incapable of sealing him. I can understand the others. But seven tails is probably the strongest a human would be able to seal. Without THAT artifact me and nine tails are untouchable."

Gabriel paused for a moment then replied. "The human who sealed him summoned Shinigami. You know Shinigami doesn't care who he seals as long as he gets the soul of the human, who requests it. All the others have been sealed. Deny it or not is your choice but you have work to do. I cannot take no for an answer."

Kamibatsu absorbed the information for a moment then spoke. "Alright. But You will have to accept a compromise. Once a week I'll go hunting for several marks. Then I'll take the rest of the week off, to live this life. Working only one day a week might sound lazy, but this is my vacation after all. Your list will be taken care. So just stay off my back ok?"

Inwardly Gabriel sighed. That was the best he could expect he supposed. This is why he hated working with demons. A bunch of egotistical bastar... not nice creatures. "Very well. But if you skip even once I'll be back. And you won't get away with just one day a week then. I can personally promise you, that your vacation status will be revoked. Until next time... Kamibatsu." He purposefully exaggerated the name at the end of the sentence, before once again disappearing into thin air.

Kamibatsu chuckled to himself. He wondered what humans would think if they found out their most holy god was such a slave driver. Tough love he supposed. Kami had promised that he would not interfere directly with humans unless he had absolutely no choice. However, the all knowing being he was, he also saw humankind's self destructive tendencies. In order to keep from having to directly interfere to prevent human kinds destruction. He created demons. Several kinds were created, with different purposes in mind. Certain demons who rose in power above the others became eligible to become one of the nine tailed beasts. Only one of each race of demon was allowed to be a tailed beast at a time. These demons jobs were to prevent humans who would eventually rise to power and cause destruction of the world, from doing so. By killing them. Often times these humans would never become a leader of a country or anything big. But if in some way they would help contribute to the problem, in a way that could be prevented by their death. Then their name was put on the "Hitlist", and one of the tailed beasts would "Take care of them".

While the percentage of people in the world that would be added to the hitlist was incredibly small. The amount overall was still a lot. Every day a new person was born, who would be added to that hitlist, just the same as every day thousands of people were born who would not. The target could be any age from an old man to a small child. However children would not be added until they were past eight years of age.

There was one major difference between demons and humans in how they were created. Kami knew everything because he could predict what would happen based on what people were involved. Because of this the inevitable destruction of the world plagued his mind day in and day out. So when he created demons he made them beyond this forsight of his, as they were often completely irratic. Demons created an unknown factor in destiny, making it possible to avoid the inevitable. Recently a demon had been added to the list. This was the first time in thousands of years something like this had happened. Even Kami himself was not completely sure what this demon would do, but one thing was certain. Iku Staka was going to bring the world to the brink of destruction. He was assembling a group of humans who's power was nearly unrivaled. And if he succeeded in his goal Kami himself would have to intervene. Which meant the near destruction of the entire human race.

Kamibatsu smiled to himself at the thought. At least he had promised to use fire next time, and not water. He really hated water. Fire made him feel cozy. Water made him feel claustrophobic. Even he would take a swim now and then, but putting his head under water was something he avoided at all costs. The last time Kami had intervened, Kamibatsu had to fly above the clouds for over a month. He spent half a year sleeping to recover.

Deciding to head back, he flushed the toilet, and washed his hands, to have the appearance of having actually used the bathroom. Walking back in he sat down again to watch his beloved "Sister" playing with her toys. He supposed it wouldn't be bad to go hunting now and then. He was getting hungry after all, and as much as he loved her, taking a break from "playtime" didn't sound like a bad idea once in a while.

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It was night time and Naruto had just gone to sleep. But sweet dreams were not his to be had this night. Dreams of things that had happened but, but of which he had no recollection, would instead be taking their place. He sat in a room where the walls seemed to stretch upward into infinity, with no ceiling in sight. He could see eight other people seated at different locations across the room. His seat seemed to be the highest. Someone had obviously told a joke as most of the others were laughing. It was then he noticed something strange about these people. They seemed to have ethereal appendages.

One had black circles around his eyes, and a ringed tail that seemed to be waving back and forth behind him. Another had two tails, and seemingly slitted pupils for eyes. Most of them had tails, although a few had some other appendages instead. Regardless of what the appendage was, it started with one and continued to grow. The one sitting closest to him had eight horns on his head, two ethereal wings protruding from his back, and an arrogant expression on his face. The man turned to face him and said something. Naruto cocked his head slightly unable to understand what he said. Everything seemed to sound fuzzy, it seemed impossible to tell what he was saying. Apparently he said it again but suddenly everything was loud and clear. "I said congratulations on your position as nine-tails. As a personal gift, I had a sacrificial lamb brought in from a nearby village. I think its at the perfect age for eating. At its most tender I would say. BRING IN THE SACRIFICE!"

Naruto turned his head to where the man seemed to be shouting. Two giant doors opened, and a young girl walked in. Naruto had eaten lamb a few times in his life, although not often. But those few times had been enough to know it was delicious. He strained his eyes to see where the lamb was and if she was leading it behind her. Disappointed he saw there was in fact no lamb of any kind. He turned his head back to the man to ask if he was making fun of him when he noticed all eyes were on him, apparently in anticipation. Apparently they noticed something he didn't. The one tailed man spoke up "Well? Are you not going to have her? I myself can see how delicious she is, and can barely contain myself. Dont keep us in suspense! A willing soul is not something you get every day."

The horned man nodded his approval, and had some smug smirk on his face. Naruto was still confused about what they were talking about so he turned to speak to the girl. But instead of his own voice, he heard a deep booming one, that could not belong to him. "Come forth child. You understand what you are here for?"

Naruto's confusion only rose as the voice was not only, not his, but seemed to speak on its own accord. The girl replied "Yes my lord. I come from a village whom holds foxs in the highest of regards. It would be an honor to give me soul for your gain." Naruto still didn't completely understand what was going on, but he felt a sickly feeling in his stomach. Something very wrong was going on here.

The deep voice spoke again. "Very well, I accept your dedication, and shall become a guardian for your village. In return I shall have your soul for all eternity." A hand reached forth, un-listening to Naruto's will. And crushed the life from the girl as if she was a mere doll. Naruto watched in horror as she stopped moving. He could hear her heart stopping, her pulse slowing. He could sense her bodily functions ceasing. After what seemed like an eternity he saw what had to be the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life. A personage rose from the dead body, seeming to be made up entirely of light. His first thought, was that this must be what angels look like. Time seemed to slow as she slowly rose upwards, then suddenly he heard himself inhale. Not like the kind when you are normally breathing, but actually like trying to inhale something. As he inhaled it was like someone blew this person towards him, as if she was lighter than any feather could ever be. And then ecstasy. None of the foods he had ever eaten in his entire life compared to this. Even ramen seemed to pale in comparison. It could only be described as heaven.

The horned man spoke after apparently watching him for a few minutes. "Don't tell me this was your first dedicated soul? Hah! Well congratulations on your first soul devoured after being made the nine-tailed beast. I drink to you Kyuubi." The others responded with cheers and drank some kind of elixir from goblets so intricate, that a king would feel poor by simply looking at them. A feel of energy coursed through him and he stood up. Then the most blood curdling roar he had ever heard resounded across the room. Exhilaration rushed through him, in such a manner that he would never forget. As well as terror at the sound of this horrible roar.

He woke suddenly in a sweat. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach, and rushed to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before "Ralph" was summoned. Feebly he got to the sink and turned on the faucet to wash his face, on glancing down he suddenly noticed something. His pupils were red slits. Doing a double take he noticed they were normal, and dismissed it as his imagination playing tricks on him after the nightmare he had just had. In that dream he had... eaten someones soul. Just thinking about it nearly made him have to rush back to the toilet. Fear once again overtook him as he hid in the corner of his bathroom. The images of his nightmare replaying themselves over and over in his mind, and he kept hearing that terrifying roar in his head. Not for the first time in his young life he wished he had someone to hold him and make it all go away.

**AN: Sorry about the delay. I have been pretty busy at work recently. And in my time off I have been sick with this disease called laziness. Its pretty bad. But then I'm sure those of you who have been with me since the beginning know that. This chapter had some fun parts for me as a writer, but there wasn't any fight scenes really, so it was slightly boring to write. Next one should be better. Kamibatsu starts hunting, Naruto and Hinata start school, and Gaara shows everyone he really can dance in a bikini. Well the last part isn't true but the rest is. Next chapter shouldn't take as long to put out (I know I say this every time), more action and blood for those who love it. Probably a bit of romance to. Can't be to sure about these things. Also everyone beware. I just found out that I have the same amount of toes on my left foot as my left hand. I'm off to check the situation with my right foot. I recommend you do the same.**


	3. A Demons Resilience

**AN: Allo as Always I'm sorry I took so long just as I always am. I have had a HUGE headache for over a week now and I am thinking it may be a sinus infection. Concentrating on writing has been difficult to say the least. Anyways on the chapter. Naruto is going to be a bit more uber than in the Manga. My reason for this is, in here Naruto is one quarter dragon (read Origin of the Sealmasters if you didn't know this). Not to mention he has the most powerful of the tailed beasts sealed within him. He is by no means a normal human. I fully intend to use this a great deal. His abilities are going to be almost exactly like the manga, however I fully intent to expand on them and add my own twist. For those of you who have not read Origin of the sealmasters this is a slight, and I mean SLIGHT crossover with final fantasy seven. Well on to reading! Hope you enjoy.**

**A Demons Resilience**

An alarm pierced the night. Men rushed back and forth, in a frenzy. Their lord had been assassinated, and they were determined to find the culprit, and make him pay in blood. But the culprit was nowhere to be found... no he was rushing back and forth with the rest of them like he was one of them. Then seeing his chance he slipped away in the commotion, without being noticed. The target had not been extremely wealthy. He had not had massive amounts of troops at his command. All and all he actually had a fairly small estate. It had been a simple matter to slip in, cut his throat, then use a henge jutsu to appear as one of the guards. Of course all the guards would be questioned later, but he was long gone by then.

In the old days he would have not had the slightest problem simply killing all the guards. But in his current state he didn't have the physical ability to do that and remain unscathed. Of course most people would consider the idea of an eight year old professional assassin a laughable idea at best. But then he wasn't really eight years old. Just physically.

Now as much as he would like to enjoy the sense of success, after killing his target. He still had three more left on his list for the day. Two were fairly close, the other would take most of the rest of the day to get to. Once he reached the other two he successfully assassinated them without being noticed either. But then they were not exactly real challenges either. No this last one, he had saved for last because it would be the most difficult. This man was a certified missing nin. Only jounin rank, not anbu luckily. But even so in his current state it would be a very difficult challenge. It wasn't that he didn't think he could do it. There were very few humans alive that he actually thought he would be unable to kill if he really wanted to. The difference was that he stood to lose something in the process. Perhaps and arm, or a lung. Nothing he couldn't survive and regenerate from. But explaining a missing limb, or massive amounts of blood to his "Family" would be most annoying.

The real challenge would be killing his target, without getting more than a few minor scratches. He didn't think he could simply slip in close and cut his throat like he had with the others. After all this guy was no amateur. His only real possibilities were in actual combat. Sure he probably had several times the chakra his target did, even though his body was still that of a child, but speed and strength can only be boosted by chakra so much. Even enhancing his muscles as much as he could safely, he probably couldn't cover more than half the gap of their strength. He could probably cover most of the gap speedwise though. Still it was going to be no walk in the park.

Then before he knew it, he was there. He had spent so much time thinking about it, he hadn't realized how much time had passed. Apparently his target was waiting as well. "Well, you seem a little small for an assassin. I expected someone of your reputation to be a bit larger." Kamibatsu was wearing a mask so the fact he was actually a child remained a secret. However any way you looked at it, he was incredibly short if you compared him to an adult. Also the instant he spoke his voice would give away his age right away. So he didn't speak. He attacked. Summoning a katana from one of the seals on his left arm he rushed in close, attempting to end it quickly.

His targets name was Maeyoko Jean. Jean also was quick on his feet as well. After all one didn't make jounin in the village hidden in the clouds simply by waiting for an opponent to cut their head off. Kamibatsu rushed forward and preforms a quick slash attempting to decapitate Jean. However Jean smoothly dodged and pulled a kunai which he attempted to slash Kamibatsu across the stomach. Kamibatsu leapt over the strike and did a double slash with the katana towards Jeans face. Jean parried both strikes and counted with a kick to Kamibatsu's ribs. Unable to dodge he took it full on, and instead ripped a gash the length of Jeans leg in the process. Unluckily for Kamibatsu, Jeans specialty just happened to be medical ninjutsu, along with taijutsu. Due to his medical knowledge he knew not only how to heal his own body from damage received, but to increase the damage done to his opponent, by causing internal damage as well.

Kamibatsu found out both those facts quickly. One by feeling several internal organs rupture from the chakra enhanced kick. And two by watching him heal his own leg quickly after it was injured. This complicated things. He couldn't simply give and take small cuts here and there, and wait for his opponent to weaken due to blood loss. And considering the ninja's ability to actually heal an injury, versus kamibatsu's ability to regenerate from one. The ninja could recover faster than he could. Even if not as many times. Taijutsu being ruled out Kamibatsu decided to try his next specialty. Ninjutsu. Forming hand seals in rapid succession he announced his jutsu. **Fire Style: Pheonix flower jutsu!**

Several small fireballs flew towards Jean, who attempted to dodge them. He managed to dodge all but one, and was just about to dodge it when he saw Kamibatsu descending from above with his katana, prepared to finish him as he moved out of the path of the projectile. Jean switched tactics and took the impact from the fireball, and in turn delfected the katana with his kunai, using his other hand he struck Kamibatsu in the throat with his hand in a knife edge, shutting off the windpipe. However instead of watching his eyes widen as he realized he couldn't breath, he poofed away in a puff of smoke. And Jean felt the long blade of the katana pierce his side. Using a Kage Bunshin Kamibatsu had used a earth jutsu to travel underground up close to him, undetected. Then he rose up just as the clone was struck and stabbed the katana under the rib cage into Jeans heart. Jean almost smiled. Whoever this guy was, his experience far outweighed his size. The timing had been perfect. Blackness overtook his vision and he toppled over, lifeless.

The fight had been short, calculated, precise. It probably would have dragged on much longer, but Jean had made a grave mistake. He had seen the Kage bunshin and assumed it was real, no tricks no feints. The classic 'send an attack at your opponent, and hit them while they are dodging it' Tactic is commonly used in battle. Jean had been faced with that same tactic many times, and come out on top using the exact same tactic he used this time. The only difference was that it had not been that simple. Even the most experienced jounin screw up every now and then. Timing is everything, screw up at the wrong moment, and it costs you your life. Such was the case this time.

Kamibatsu sighed in relief. Not only had it ended quicker than expected, but no real visible injuries. The ruptured organs would fully regenerate themselves within a day or so. The bruised skin would follow, since it was less important. Although he would have to think of a reason for it by the time he got home. His excuse for being gone the whole day was that he was 'Learning to walk properly, without needing to hold onto anyone.'

In actuality he just made a Kage Bunshin and had it do a henge to appear like some random person from his past. Then this 'Person' said that he needed some basic help around his cabin cleaning and stuff. He himself had taught blind kids to walk by themselves before, so he would do it as a trade. His mother was overjoyed her son would be able to walk without stumbling around and breaking things, and that it wouldn't even cost any money. Her husband would have said no without hesitation if she had told him it would cost money. He refused to spend any money on Kamibatsu that wasn't one hundred percent necessary.

Upon his arrival home Mikoto rushed outside calling his name. He allowed himself a silent smile. No matter how many times it happened, he would never get tired of hearing her coming to greet him. Sliding quickly into his role he whimpered in heavily exaggerated pain, when she hugged him. He knew they would see the bruise anyways, so he might as well make sure it didn't seem suspicious. His mother and Mikoto demanded to know what had happened upon seeing the giant bruise on his chest. He proclaimed that he had been injured by a very BAD man on his way home. Of course he didn't want to outright lie to Mikoto so he simply said that the man had kicked him really hard. Of course with the arrogant false front he was putting up he proclaimed that he didn't feel the slightest pain from it. Of course he still whimpered every time they touched it so they merely laughed at his 'tough guy' impression. Thoroughly convinced that inside he really was just a weak little boy.

Neither Kamibatsu nor Mikoto had any friends in town, for several reasons. He didn't conceal the seals on his body as when he was born everyone had seen them. Making them disappear would have seemed suspicious, so he left them there. However due to the fact his skin 'seemed' to be massively discolored, all the other kids enjoyed making fun of him more, than the idea of being his friend. Not that he cared. And Mikoto wasn't about to be friends with anyone who would make fun of her beloved twin brother. Often times he was picked on and made fun of. Outwardly he appeared to try and ignore it but barely avoided crying. Inwardly he thought it laughable. None of these children meant anything to him, and their attempts at insults were funny if nothing else. Ever watched a child insult another? It makes you mad. Ever had that same child try and insult you? Its funny as hell. They brag about how cool or strong they are, and at the same time talk about how weak or pathetic you are. Granted Kamibatsu's strength was much lower than an adults, however the very idea of a mere child being on even grounds with him was laughable.

But one of the things he enjoyed most wasn't their pathetic attempts to insult him, but a certain someones reaction to it. Mikoto always jumped in to defend him, and chase off the 'bullies'. Any attention from her was something worth any price. He craved it with a passion. Alternating between the 'tough little man' and the 'crying boy who failed horribly at trying to not show how weak he really was', managed to garner him the majority of her attention. There was one thing he was determined about. She would never care for anyone more than him. He would be the most important person in her life. And he would do anything to make sure it stayed that way.

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Naruto was bored. That was it. Simply bored. Here he had volunteered to go to the ninja academy, to become an all powerful ninja. So why was he here in a classroom listening to someone spout stories on some war that had happened long before he was even born. Who cared how many people had fought in a battle that had happened thirty years ago. What did that have to do with him learning to be a ninja now? Good thing Hinata could still pay attention in these classes. If not for her notes he doubted he could pass the tests on these lame subjects. Originally he had thought to simply not pay attention at all, and not give a damn if the teacher could see that he wasn't paying attention. But when he was threatened to be moved to another seat (one which was NOT located next to Hinata) he promptly decided to find less obvious ways of ignoring useless information.

He noticed another kid in their class had it down to an art. His name was Shikamaru, and he managed to pass (even if not by much) all the classes, without paying much attention at all. Better yet he rarely got caught. Oh yes he was a master of sleeping in class without anyone noticing. Anyone but Naruto that is. Naruto remembered one thing that had grabbed his and the other students attention when they first started class here. These were the exact rooms that the chunnin exams were taken in years ago. Now they took place in a different location, but they USED to be here. People who were real ninja now had taken the tests to become chunnin in this very room. It had been an exciting thought at first a year ago when they started. Now it really didn't seem that important.

But one day Naruto found something that seemed slightly more important. He found some writing on the inside of his desk. "_This desk is property of Yuki Ukriz. Daughter of the strongest man in the world! One day I will be as strong as him! Know ye who read this, you have touched greatness._" The name wasn't familiar but Naruto was impressed. If the daughter of the strongest man in the world had owned the desk, then maybe it was a lucky desk. One day he would try and find out if anyone by that name was recorded in the library. This was one piece of history that he was interested in. Later after class he shared his find with Hinata. She was impressed, but then she posed the question that bugged the hell out of him for the rest of the day. "Who is the strongest man in the world?"

The next day the class got a big surprise. Today they would be learning to do the 'Henge' Jutsu. They found out quickly however even this most simple of jutsu was incredibly difficult. And the largest part of this was not, performing it. But the result. You quickly found out just how different your mental image of someone was, from how the really were. For the teachers such as Iruka, this was the time you find out which students like you and which ones don't. The ones that do often times (accidentally) henge to look similar to you, but more handsome or stronger, or bigger etc. The ones that don't like you do pretty much the same, just opposite. So naturally Iruka got the impression Naruto didn't like him much when he saw Naruto's version of 'Him'. Which wasn't really true, Naruto just happened to suck at that jutsu. The teachers had found out long ago, that attempting to tell the students that the henge they used looked nothing like them was very ineffective. So not counting testing times they would have the other students inform the current one up how good of a job they did. The teacher still graded on his or her own opinion, but this gave the students themselves a better idea of when they were off on some detail.

Teamwork was highly stressed in the academy. Sadly Iruka found out shortly that very few students helped Naruto in any way. Most of them seemed to enjoy making fun of his failures more than trying to help him learn from them. Much like his own childhood he sympathized. However Naruto had one thing he didn't when he was a child. Iruka noticed that the shy Hyuuga Hinata was the only one who actively helped Naruto in areas he was lacking in. It gave him a bit of joy to see he wasn't completely shut out. However he also knew the Hyuuga clan was very strict on who they allowed themselves to associate themselves with, and that Naruto would not be allowed most likely. So when the days came that the Hyuuga would send someone to check up on the heiress, he made Naruto switch seats for the day. Naruto quite obviously didn't like it, but once he saw the other Hyuuga show up later on in the day he developed an understanding that Iruka knew what was going on, and was actually on his side. After this Naruto actually began to try more even in the classes that were incredibly boring. Even if they did teach useless classes as well, they seemed to be looking out for their students.

However Iruka wasn't Naruto's only teacher. He was just one of the few who actually gave a damn about how Naruto did. The others for the most part completely ignored him in class. When he raised his hand to ask a question, they acted like he wasn't there. The only times they actually called on him was to ask questions there were sure he didn't have the answer to. It was a fact there in Konoha, that very few adults liked him. And children have a tendency to act as their elders do, so even though they didn't know why he was treated as he was, the other children followed their parents examples in putting him down and making fun of him any chance they got.

After each school day Hinata had to go home to train in her families own special fighting style, the gentle fist. At these times Naruto would go train on his own, practicing Taijutsu mainly, although he spent a great deal of time practicing the henge jutsu. Even though he laughed with the other kids who poked fun at his personal lack of skill in it, he was getting tired of it. He could pretend around them that it didn't bother him, but without anyone to see, that illusion was wiped away. He wanted to become good at it, and everything else. He wanted to become the top ninja. The strongest there was, maybe if he did that people would look at him with respect, instead of disdain.

One day after both school and her extra training was done, Naruto stopped by Hinata's house to talk. Sometimes he just needed to vent. And this time was one of those times. Only she was willing to listen. "Every time I try so hard but I keep failing! And the teachers all seem to hate me, none of them will accept me the way they do the other students. I want to become recognized! I want them to look and speak of me with respect." Turning to Hinata he asked "Who can you think of that gets a lot of respect? I was thinking Jounin would be cool, but I'm not sure that would be enough. I need more! I need them to see me as someone they can't live without! Beyond a shadow of a doubt!"

Hinata bowed her head for a few moments. An idea came to her and she spoke it aloud. "Why not Hokage?"

The next day in class Naruto raised his hand in the one class he knew he would actually get answered. "Hey Iruka sensei, is the Hokage the most respected member of the leaf village?"

Iruka glanced at him while writing on the chalkboard. "Yes Naruto, he is the most powerful and respected member of Konoha. Ninja or otherwise. In fact he was so respected that even after he had retired, when the Fourth Hokage died, the Third Hokage was asked once again to take the mantle that is Hokage. You could learn a thing or two from him. All of you."

Naruto thought to himself for a moment then jumped on top of his desk. "Then I will become the greatest Hokage EVER! Then everyone will have to acknowledge me!" Laughter from other students filled the room. Someone shouted that it was impossible for the deadlast student in the academy to become the best ninja in the village. Naruto shouted again that he would, and that he would prove them all wrong in the process.

Iruka stood at his chalkboard just staring at Naruto completely shocked. Most children might talk about how they would be Jounin or Anbu one day, but even children rarely claimed they were going to be Hokage. His position was seen almost as the status of a deity. Most children simply looked at him and just stared in awe, reaching that same position never entered their minds. Yet the deadlast student had just proclaimed he would achieve it. He wanted to pass it off as simply another grab at attention, as he did fairly often. But this time he had seemed so serious. Shaking his head he put the thought aside and decided to see if he could use this to motivate him as well. "Well, I'm afraid thats impossible Naruto. You have to be the best there is. And right now you happen to have the lowest score in the class... in every area. If you really want to make Hokage you had better start actually TRYING to pass."

Naruto looked slightly sheepish after his comment, and sat back down again. However he meant it. And if to achieve it, then he simply had to become better than everyone else so be it. After the next exam he looked at the results to see who was top of the class in all areas. And he found it, the person who he had to beat, his unaware rival. Uchiha Sasuske.

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She ran. She ran because flying, while she would be more maneuverable and faster, she would be unable to outfly her pursuer. He was much faster than her, and stronger. Her only chance was at evading him till she lost him. Not that she had much faith she could do that, but it was her only chance at survival. She was a young dragon, who's scales glistened a bright teal. Two horns stood prominently from her forehead, a sign of her achievements even in her young age. She hadn't really seen what her pursuer looked like, but he had taken down three two horned dragons and a four horned one by himself in a matter of minutes. Whoever this man was he wanted only one thing, dragons. Despite her being about two times the size of a horse she moved through the trees without hardly any noise. But she could sense him. He was gaining on her.

The man in pursuit was ecstatic. He was about to kill his fifth dragon that day. Truly five in one day had to be a good omen. The gods must be blessing his success. This one proved to think discretion to be the better part of valor, and ran when she realized she was no match for him. In a way it was a pity, as if she had fought things would have been much quicker. But he had to admit there was a certain thrill of the chase. After his other six brethren had been killed that fateful night, he had decided to pay back dragonkind in full. By annihilating them completely.

Finally he caught up to her. Even for a dragon her stamina had been pushed to its limit. But he barely noticed any strain for his part. He prepared to end it when she spoke. "He will stop you. It doesn't matter how strong you become. You only... human." She stressed the word to exaggerate her point.

He smirked before replying. "Ah? But where is your beloved emperor? Hiding himself while his race is cut down? Doesn't sound like a very useful emperor to me." He scoffed at idea of a demon actually putting itself at risk to help another.

She growled deep in her throat. "Don't you dare insult his excellence. He has more honor than any human you have ever known. His power is unbelievable, even to his fellow dragons. When he finds what you have been doing, he won't kill you. He will literally rip your soul out of your body and feast on it for an eternity."

The only remaining demonhunter of the seven laughed. An empty hollow sound that echoed dully through the forest. "He already robbed me of my soul. I merely intend to repay the favor TENFOLD!" Releasing his already prepared jutsu a beam of light pierced through the area where the dragon crouched. However she unfurled her wings and took to the sky, hoping to gain a slight advantage. But the demon hunter smiled and used another jutsu. **Light style: Gods ecstasy!** A ball glowing with energy shot forth at the young dragon who only barely avoided it. But she quickly found that he hadn't even cared if it hit her, after all it hadn't really been activated yet. He shouted the second part of the jutsu. **KAI!**

The ball of energy literally exploded sending beams of light in a million directions at once. Several hundread speared the young female everywhere. Even her resistant wings were shredded into cheesecloth. There was no deathcry. She simply plummeted to the ground, and lay unmoving.

This demonhunter had found the foolproof way of attracting demons to him. All he had to do was find their soulstone and they came running. Sensing it was moved from where they kept it, the logical choice was to rush to its current location to protect it. After all without it they were as mortal as any human. Kenji headed back to return the five newly acquired soulstones to his master. After all, when the gods themselves gave you power, and only asked for a small item such as a soulstone in return. One could hardly refuse. You were in essence giving the demons soul to them.

Once he reached the chamber of his master he bowed and waited to be told to stand. "M'lord I have returned bearing five soulstones of young dragons. May you add them to your collection." His master stood from his throne then walked slowly to where he knelt. Gently placing a hand on his head, his booming voice echoed through the chamber.

"You have done well child. May you always walk in the path of the light. Go forth and protect the world by vanquishing more and more demons, throughout the world." He took the stones from Kenji's outstretched hands, and walked back to his throne. Kenji understood that was his dismissal and silently took his leave.

After he left there was a shimmering of darkness and a figure appeared behind the one on the throne. The man on the throne turned and glanced then smiled. "Ah, Jashin. My brother it has been awhile. How are you these days? Your personal cult seems to be doing well. Perhaps as well as mine?"

Jashin shooks his head. "Still collecting demon souls Maegor? I thought you would grow out of that eventually. You can't absorb energy from them like you can human souls. I'll never get why you want them."

Maegor simply smiled and pressed a button on the armrest of his throne and the dark room lit up. Not with a natural light, but the light of hundreds of demon souls. In some part of the world they were called materia. Moving to one section he placed the new five in what empty spots he had. In this room they were unable to gather their energy to rebirth themselves. Did he have some evil purpose for them? Was he planning on using them to take over the world? Hardly. He thought they looked pretty. And that was it. He had created an entire religion to gather these souls for him, because he liked the way they lit up his room. He truly was a powerful demon. While his power wasn't up to speed with Jashin, he was also younger.

Normally demons had to kill a human themselves to be able to absorb their soul energy. However several years back Jashin had discovered a way to absorb energy from the soul even if the human was killed by someone else. Of course it was quite complicated. The person doing the killing had to have a special seal made up of their own blood created on the ground, then kill the person using the seal. Doing so gave the soul energy to Jashin regardless of where he was. Once he found out that he had created a cult of his own for that sole reason.

Deciding enough time had passed, and he was tired of watching his younger brother drool over his collection of "Bright shiny objects" Jashin decided to take his leave. Maegor barely noticed he left.

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Sarutobi was informed it had happened again. Someone had decided to be a "Hero" and tried to kill "The demonchild" known as Naruto. He had accomplices, but they had gotten away. If not for the work of a jounin in the area, the boy would be dead. Attempting to kill any citizen of Konoha was a crime, punishable by death. Attempting to kill Naruto was considered a few marks worse. However even one of their best was unable to beat the names of the accomplices out of the man. Morino Ibiki growled to himself. Eight hours with this man under his jurisdiction and he had been unable to get any names. He had almost a few times. But each time the man got ahold of himself. Ibiki knew what this meant. It meant he had to admit defeat and call in THAT man to try his hand at things.

Ibiki gave the request to a messenger, and watched him depart. In the last twelve years he had not had this happen more than twice. It irked him that someone else was better than him at interrogation. It was after all his specialty. None the less, facts were facts and THAT man had never failed.

Hearing the sounds outside the door he opened it to reveal the man of his thoughts. This man even sent a shiver down his own spine. Crippled for life during the chunnin exams several years back he had been removed from active duty as a ninja. However he had proved his skills to be sufficient to be used even afterwards, so he had a civilian contract with the anbu. Not something commonly done, but not completely unheard of. Whoever this man used his skills on died, but he always managed to get the information first. Seemingly cold and without feeling, his cruelty manifested itself when he was given a victim. This mans name was Tsubaki Saydori.

Tsubaki was wheeled silently into the room and left alone with the man whom they had been trying to gather information from. The man sneered at him. "So their best couldn't break me, and they send a gimp? Amazing how pathetic our own village is. They got weak from protecting that demon, and now we risk being destroyed by kami knows what. Any of the other villages with half a brain could realize that we are in no position to defend ourselves if they attacked. We're just lucky that their to stupid to realize that." Ibiki and the girl who was in charge of Tsubaki's wheelchair left the room silently, to let him work.

Tsubaki's mouth barely moved as he spoke quietly. "I suppose thats not really a problem for you however... Since you are no longer a part of this village." Only the slightest movement of his head and he directed his eyes at the man across from him. Glowing red eyes that bespoke a insatiable anger. A lust for blood that could not be quenched. Terror emanated from them in a way that simply couldn't be human. Then he spoke one final time. "You know Sir. Sometimes the ones who are truly demons, are those of our own kind. Let me show you my own personal hell." Throughout the halls a piercing scream echoed for a short moment, before passing once again into eerie silence.

After several minutes passed the young woman who was in charge of Tsubaki's wheelchair came back into the room with Ibiki. The man across from him sat lax jawed, and staring at nothing. Drool dripped unnoticed from the corner of his mouth. Ibiki knew the signs of a man who had, had his mind obliterated. They were written all over that man. Tsubaki spoke. "It is done. Let us leave this dreary place." The young woman took the handles of his wheelchair and began to wheel him out when Ibiki stopped her.

"What of the names?" He asked. Tsubaki thought for a second. "Oh yes those are done as well." He uncaringly spouted off several names before once again going silent. Ibiki wrote them down as quickly as he said them but one thing remained as question. Why had Tsubaki spoke of them as an afterthought? Had his entire purpose that day not been to get them? If not then what else?

Tsubaki had an afterthought just as sleep overtook him after his strenuous activity. "Oh I Forgot to give Ibiki one of the names... The last name was Mizuki..."

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Naruto was walking home from a long afternoon of training when it happened. Several masked men attacked him. He knew only the basics of ninjutsu, and next to nothing in the art of Taijutsu. These men were trained ninja. He was walking through the woods in a shortcut home when they jumped him. Two grabbed him, one holding each arm. Not that he had the strength to really cause much problems for even one of them. Then it happened. One man walked forwards with a kunai and slowly... deliberately... slit Naruto's throat. He tried to scream. But he only managed to choke on his own blood as it rushed down into his lungs. They began to slice other parts of his body as well, for no other reason than to torment his final moments. Suddenly a jounin appeared out of nowhere. He wore an Anbu mask and knocked away all the men from Naruto away. Seeing the boys condition he knew he wouldn't last long, so he preformed a quick series of hand seals and summoned a earth bunshin. Sending it away to get help he engaged the men who had decided themselves to be the ones to put an end to the scourge that had plagued them so long.

Even as an Anbu all of these men were at least chunnin, and two of them were jounin. He knew he couldn't win against them. So he went with a delaying tactic. Fighting for the sole purpose of buying time. But time was something Naruto had precious little of. The Anbu who wore the mask of a bear sent several shuriken flying in multiple directions and preformed another jutsu. **Shuriken Kage bunshin no jutsu**! The shuriken he threw multiplied tenfold and even injured two of the chunnin. However there was a total of seven of them, and still only one of him. He knew he wouldn't have enough chakra to sustain more Earth bunshins and still fight all seven of them. And his bunshin was taking to long. So he used an emergency flare that is normally only used if the Hokage himself is in trouble. He knew it was against the rules but he had no other option.

His opponents saw this and six of the seven decided right then and there to leave. However one of them saw the possibility that Naruto may survive, and decided to stay even with the risk, to make sure he didn't make it out of there alive. Ignoring the Anbu he rushed the fallen child and preformed a series of handseals. **Fire style: Fire bullet**. Several fire balls shot out towards the already bleeding child and were only barely intercepted by the Bear anbu.

They both jumped away from each other and considered their next move. They didn't get very long. Suddenly all at once twelve shinobi showed up from multiple directions. Seeing the flare they had dropped whatever they had been doing and rushed over to assist. In a matter of moments they subdued the assailant. He roiled and cursed them, saying how they were protecting a demon over their own kind. A quick strike the to back of his neck and he fell unconscious. Naruto was quickly gathered up and taken to the hospital. After several hours of intensive care by even the best they pronounced he would not live through the night. The wounds he had sustained were severe even for an adult much less a child. The bear was congratulated on having found him in the first place. But he felt like a failure. If he had gotten there even a few minutes sooner just maybe it would have been different. Despite doing their best to save him, none of the doctors stayed with Naruto after it was decided he was going to die. There was nothing they could do, they saw no point in staying around "It" any more than necessary. The bear thought it was the least he could do. He stayed with him through the night.

Despite his training the only reason he had even found Naruto when he did was that he had just come back form a long mission, and after reporting in was heading home. So despite the fact he planned on staying awake the entire night he found himself waking in the early hours of the morning to the chirping birds. He walked over to the boy called Naruto and touched his forehead one final time in a gesture of goodbye. But the forehead was warm to the touch not cold as he expected. Warmer than it should be thats for sure. He called in a nurse and they found out Naruto was running a fever, but quite alive. Two days later they removed the bandages on his neck to find not even a scar of the injury. He had recovered from a fatal injury in less than three days. Several people were relieved, but others who hadn't really bothered to get into the whole "Demon must die" thing, began to wonder. Just what the hell was he?

**AN: IT'S OVER! Well this chapter anyways. Review! I know if your reading this you read the rest so gimme feedback. Am I to cruel? Did I hurt poor Naruto to much? Those of you who think so should PROBABLY stop reading after this chapter then. I fully intend to hurt many characters in this fic, oh yes I do. No one is above the possibility. Considering this is going to be a NaruxHina pairing I considered putting them together later on but... Well despite my hopes of it happening in the manga I don't think it will for the simple reason I can't see a effective way of it happening. Sorry folks I don't see Naruto just waking up one day and saying "OMG hinata I wuv you! I want yo hug you and kiss you and call you george! Wait ignore that last part." And despite how good many NaruXhina fics are most of them start off that way. Well to put a more realistic approach in my opinion, Naruto is going to start seeing Hinata as something besides a friend at a much earlier age. Sakura crush thing isn't really gonna happen. Thats probably one of the biggest changes from the manga I'm doing, besides demons being a large part of the world, and naruto being one quarter demon, and well pretty much everything so never mind. There will be MANY changes from that which we call cannon. For some reason I don't think you guys will mind to much. For those of you who don't remember Tsubaki was the third teammate of The fourth Hokage in "Origin". We will see him off and on here but he's not really gonna be that focused on. Well I'm off to do something... Probably read someone else's fanfics. Or play warcraft three.**


	4. Bad Omens

**AN: Welp me again, you know, that one guy... the one who keeps writing these annoying little inserts in front of your long awaited chapters. Could be just because I like to delay. I might be sadistic, who knows. Anyways enjoy the omens. They speak of the FUTURE!**

**Bad Omens**

There would be few times in his life that he had a total breakdown, but this was one of them. Hinata held Naruto close as he cried like he had never cried before. He didn't know why people hated him, but he had gotten used to it. He could ignore the trembling in his heart when they cast withering looks at him, or ignored him altogether. He could take that, but when they actually attempted to kill him... it hurt. Not the physical pain, although that hurt too. The pain that people from his own village were trying to kill him. Even now he didn't know why he was alive. He wasn't stupid, he knew what had been done to him had been fatal. He assumed someone had saved him, but whom that was, he was kept in the dark about.

This was a time that would never be spoken of. Neither of them would ever tell a soul about him breaking down like this. Neither would speak of it again, not even to each other. She didn't ask what happened. She just waited for him to recover so he could tell her if he wanted her to know. He would have told her too. But after he was done crying he thought about it, and knew she would just worry about him even worse than normal. She knew people treated him worse than most dogs. Neither of them knew why, and it caused her to worry about him constantly. Knowing what had happened would make her worry even more, and he couldn't do that to his only friend. So when he finished crying he took a second to dry his tears, then started asking her things that had no real relevance to anything. He wanted to take both their minds off it. She saw what he was trying to do. And assumed that meant he didn't want to tell her. She felt sad that he didn't trust her to be able to keep whatever secret this was, but she would never pressure him. So she went along with his ploy to change the subject of their thoughts. But it was an incident she never forgot.

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It was nearing graduation from the academy, and they would soon be testing to become genin. Naruto, despite his low grades had a high enough average that passing wouldn't really be a problem. Hinata was quite a bit higher in the class rankings than Naruto was. Her taijutsu while not topnotch was still near the higher end of the class rankings, as was her score in the classroom areas. Naruto and Hinata sparred frequently after class, and he had greatly improved in the taijutsu area. Although she still had the advantage. Unfortunately his chakra control was severely lacking. Making his abilities in genjutsu and ninjutsu below average. Not to mention even though he put greater effort than he used to in the classroom section he still found it incredibly boring, and therefore had a hard time with it. Even so, with all his troubles in many different sections passing still wouldn't be to difficult, as in every section his score while low, was still high enough to pass.

However, little did Naruto know that there were people not only waiting for him to fail, but intending to tweak things in order to make it impossible for him to pass. The night before the exam he made sure to go to sleep soon enough that he would be fully rested on the day of the exam itself. However a certain ninja had anticipated this, and had planned to use it to his advantage. He had been part of a plot a few years ago to kill the young blond, but they had been thwarted by a misguided anbu who seem to think his duties meant he was supposed to protect everyone in the village, including this damned demonchild. Well this man was the only one of the group who had managed to avoid being ratted out, and therefore planned on finishing the job.

However after last time he had decided not to be so obvious about it. He had no intention of being publicly executed, as his fellow comrades had been. No this plan was one that had taken years to set into place. Now he was just laying on the finishing touches. The young boy apparently ate ramen frequently, so Mizuki slipped a special herb into every single container in a way that made it look like none of them had been opened. This herb made molding chakra ten times more difficult, as well as causing the victim to have difficulties concentrating on any tasks. Having completed the first part of the final steps he silently left again. A shadow in the night.

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Naruto wasn't feeling to good. He had made sure to spend extra time sleeping yet for some reason his head felt fuzzy. He tried to remember what Iruka had said would be the most covered sections for testing, but his mind couldn't seem to recall. When he saw Hinata he said good morning, but the way he said it immediately caused her to ask if everything was alright. He looked ill. He declared he was fine even though looking at her, she seemed blurry. They sat down and waited to be handed their tests. Despite his fuzzy head he knew Hinata would be able to help him out unnoticed on any questions he was having problems with. He waited patiently for the test to be announced.

Iruka was mad. He was beyond mad. He was furious. They were doing this on purpose, and they weren't even bothering to pretend they weren't. The school council had taken a great interest in this last years grades from his class. Naturally at first he was delighted. It was rare for the school council to take interest in one teachers class. Gladly he gave them any information they asked for. It was shortly afterwards that he found out WHY they wanted that information. They only cared about the grades of one student. Uzumaki Naruto. Then right there on the spot they announced that one third of the final grade for the test would be the bunshin jutsu. It wasn't even really that important of a jutsu, but the reason they chose it was that it was the jutsu Naruto had the most difficulty with. Then then announced taijutsu would be barely worth anything in the final grade, and that the classroom section would be worth another third. Practical exercise which was normally the highest graded section was put as not really important this time.

Needless to say Iruka wasn't in the best of moods. Even so he knew Naruto could still pass. Even though he had difficulties with the bunshin jutsu he could still make a good enough one to pass. And the classroom section also he could do well enough to pass. Granted he knew Naruto would probably get some answers from Hinata, he figured it was fair considering how much out of their way the council was going to make it harder for him. Then the final straw was drawn. He found they had rearranged the seating in the classroom for the test without notifying him. Naruto was placed in the front right hand corner, closest to the examiner. While Hinata was placed in the back left corner. The obviousness of it was galling. They were making no bones about it, they did not want Naruto to become a ninja. Finally however he managed to clear all of that out of his mind. It was time to administer the test. Even without Hinata he knew Naruto could pass if he really tried. And this was something Naruto wanted badly. He would try.

After the test Iruka was looking at the tests as they were graded by the examiner. When he saw Naruto's he was shocked. The score was appalling. Naruto had never done this bad, EVER. It couldn't be possible. He looked over the questions and noticed nothing significant about them. There was no reason he should have gotten such a low score. Yet there it was. During the session where the students had to use the bunshin jutsu was where once again he was appalled. The students of course were at their best. Doing as good if not better than they ever had before. They wanted to be ninja. They had gone through years of boring classes for this final moment. Nothing would stop them. All of them passed with flying colors. All but Naruto. His attempts at the bunshin jutsu were worse than his very first attempt when Iruka had first introduced the jutsu. Iruka was shocked. Had Naruto decided to act out once again in an effort to say he would not conform to their antics? Did he not know that no matter what he was trying to pull, if he didn't pass he would have to go back through years of the academy? Without Hinata by his side? But seeing the expression on his face he knew this to be untrue. Naruto was clearly as frustrated as Iruka on this matter. He tried over and over yet could not produce a normal bunshin. Eventually the graders said enough time had passed and they could waste no more watching him fail repeatedly. Iruka reluctantly nodded and escorted the irate Naruto out of the room. All the children were escorted out back into the big yard to wait for the results. Once the results were done all of the children were gathered up and made to stand in a formation while they called off the names of the ones who passed one by one. They walked up and were given their forehead protectors, that had the insignia of the leaf village on it. One by one all of them were called up... all but Naruto. He was left standing alone as the council walked off to congratulate the families of those who passed.

Hinata wanted to console him, but her family was there, and she couldn't risk them seeing them together. Naruto walked off slowly by himself to sit on one of the tree swings by himself, while the rest of them laughed and played, happy they had passed. Only one teacher walked over to console him. His name was Mizuki. He talked to him for a bit, telling him that despite everything he shouldn't be to depressed. There was always next year. Naruto glumly stated that he wanted to pass now. He would do anything to pass. But for some reason he just couldn't. Mizuki spoke up again. "Naruto, there is one way you could pass. But it's incredibly difficult. You probably wouldn't be interested." He got up and started to walk away when Naruto grabbed his hand the light gleaming in his eyes once more. He didn't care how difficult it was, he would do anything. Mizuki smiled and spoke again. "Well there is a scroll in the Hokages tower. This scroll was created for the sole purpose of letting students who were unable to pass the first exam to have a second chance. The scroll is a two fold test. First off getting it from the tower without getting caught be the guards shows your abilities in stealth. Second part of the test is you have to learn one jutsu from the scroll. All of the jutsu are very difficult. However if you manage to do both of these things then the instructors have no choice but give you the rank of genin. Of course if they know you know of this second way they might send someone else to hide the scroll so you can't find it. Some people are just mean that way."

Naruto nodded. The council didn't like him and they were pretty obvious about it. But he could trust Mizuki. Aside from Iruka he was the only one who had been nice and actually helpful to Naruto while at the academy. Knowing this secret he ran off shouting a quick thanks to Mizuki as he began the plans in his head. He would pass. He would prove to them he had what it took to be a ninja.

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Later that night Naruto prepared to sneak into the Hokage's tower. He was feeling much better. While at home he had been about to prepare a meal of his favorite instant ramen when he noticed it had a bad smell. He opened another container and it also smelled the same. Naruto had an epiphany that moment. Apparently contrary to what he had always thought, instant noodles can spoil! Despite his heartache at the waste, he threw away all the hordes of his favorite food in the garbage. Instead for dinner he went to his favorite ramen stand. He ordered so much he couldn't possible eat any more when he finally finished. He was celebrating in advance. He would make genin. He would not fall behind. He would be able to stay by Hinata's side. Paying for his meal he rushed off to begin his plan.

Using all his knowledge of the many times he had been in the tower to his advantage he snuck in undetected. Of course several time he would have been spotted... if he had been the size of an average adult. But he was a child and small even for his age. He was able to fit in places that the guards on patrol didn't bother to look. Finally he reached the location Mizuki had informed him the scroll was kept. It took him several minutes to find the scroll, but he did find it. Silently crowing his success he turned around to prepare to escape when he came face to face with the greatest ninja in the entire village. The Hokage himself. "Hello Naruto. And where exactly do you think your going with my scroll?" Naruto had a sort of reputation if you will. A few actually. And two of them were being thought of by both of the two people in the room. The Hokage was thinking of his prankster reputation, as it wasn't uncommon of Naruto to do something that normally would be seen as possibly a crime, however Sarutobi knew Naruto only thought of it as a prank. The reputation running though Naruto's head however was that of the number one unpredictable student of the academy. He showed his secret jutsu, the one that he had learned was incredibly effective against adult men. He transformed... into a nude girl who had smoke just barely covering the parts of the body that were considered indecent.

Well the most powerful ninja in Konoha was unfortunately an older man, who had long since passed the days when he was able to gaze on young female flesh without being considered a perverted old man. Seeing a beautiful young girl who had no clothes on posing in a way that could only be interpreted in a few ways, had only one possible course of action that he was capable of following. He passed out, blood streaming from his nose as thoughts which cannot be described ran through his poor brain. Naruto transformed back into his fully clothed male self and snickered at the old man, calling him a pervert, and quickly before making his escape.

Several hours later some of the ninja on patrol found the Hokage passed out on the floor and an unhealthy amount of blood puddled in the general area of his head. Naturally they thought the worst and called in an emergency medical team, only to have him wake up shortly after and wave them off. He had unfortunately had a bad nosebleed and that was all. However the news he informed them of next was most disturbing, and they were told to call in all available ninja to the tower at once. Once they all arrived he informed them of the situation. "A very important scroll has been stolen tonight from my office. The scroll has jutsu that are for the eye's of no one but the Hokage himself. Should it fall into enemy hands we would have grave problems. The who took the scroll was Uzumaki Naruto. How he knew of the scrolls existence I cannot begin to speculate. While I'm sure he means no harm, I believe he does not fully comprehend its value or the the danger he has put himself as well as us in. Bring me back the scroll. It cannot be allowed outside the village. Go!" with a signal from him they all disappeared into the night. He had already sent out those Anbu he thoroughly trusted to go after Naruto first. He only hoped they made it before the main group. If his personal Anbu reached Naruto first he was sure they would not hurt him. But as for the main group he could not be sure of his safety. There were many in the main group who were among those who wanted him dead from birth. If they killed him now there was no way he would be able to punish them, as technically Naruto had stolen a forbidden scroll. Reaching his office he prayed silently for Naruto's safety.

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Naruto had reached one of the nearby forests and found a spot to rest. Learning the jutsu would have to be fast. He was sure by now that as part of the test there would be ninja sent after him. He would have to learn the jutsu before they found him, then he could hand it over without any problems. He figured the first jutsu in the scroll would be the one he would learn. After all the scroll was nearly as long as he was tall. It must have hundreds of jutsu. No point in spending time he didn't have to search for a good one. After all Mizuki said all he had to do was learn one jutsu, it could be any one right? So he opened the scroll and found the first jutsu on the list, and his heart sank. It was a bunshin jutsu. The worst possible type for him, as he had difficulties with even a normal bunshin. This one was called the kage bunshin jutsu (shadow clone technique). Nonetheless unwilling to go back on his word, even to himself he gritted his teeth and began to read through the jutsu.

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Iruka felt like he hadn't run so fast in his entire life. After all he was merely a mid ranked chunin, and he was trying to find Naruto faster than several squads of jounin as well as other chunin. But he had one advantage over all those other ninja. He knew Naruto personally. He knew the type of person he was, and he knew the types of places he would most likely go. After several hours of searching he found him. Exhausted and barely able to stand, but there he was. He was also grinning like a maniac. "I did it Iruka-sensei! Now you have to make me a genin! I not only managed to get past all the Anbu guards in the Hokage tower, I defeated the Hokage himself, snagged this scroll, and learned a jutsu from it! Now you have to pass me just like Mizkui-sensei said!"

Iruka frowned. Something was definitely going on. "Naruto, did Mizuki tell you to steal the scroll?" Naruto nodded.

"Mizuki-sensei told me that if I managed to steal the scroll and learn a jutsu from it you would have to promote me to genin. Well I did both! Wanna see?" Naruto's grin kept shining brightly oblivious to the obvious insinuations in what he had said.

Iruka spoke up "Naruto, what Mizuki told you was a lie. There is no feature in the system in place to promote you for stealing that scroll or learning a jutsu from it. But I think I may have an idea of some of the reasons why he lied to you..."

A shrill laughter echoed through the forest. "Poor Naruto even Iruka doesn't like you. All those times he pretended to be nice but even now he WANTS you to fail!" Naruto's grin faltered and his eye's began to show his fear of betrayal. Had all this time Iruka just been pretending to be friendly, when he really hated him just like the rest of the village? Mizuki spoke up again. "Naruto do you want to know why he and everyone else hates you? Do you want to know the reason why you have no parents or anyone who cares for you?"

Iruka yelled to interrupt him. "Stop it Mizuki! It's forbidden and you know it is! Don't do this!" Mizuki laughed again and jumped down into the clearing.

He had a smug smile on his face and he spoke up again. "Hear that Naruto? He doesn't think you deserve to know why he and everyone else in this village hates you. He's just like all the rest. But I'm not, I want you to know Naruto. I want to be your friend." Pain showed in Naruto's eyes as the betrayal from one of the few people in his life who he thought cared from him sunk in. Iruka really didn't like him. Mizuki continued. "Naruto do you remember the story of the fourth Hokage, and his battle with the nine-tailed fox Kyuubi?"

Naruto went back into student mode and answered his by the book answer of that he had been taught at the academy. "Thirteen years ago the village was attacked by the nine-tailed fox Kyuubi. After three days preparing the fourth Hokage went into battle with the Kyuubi and used a forbidden jutsu to kill the kyuubi at the cost of his own life." Naruto smiled after he finished knowing he had answered correctly. However Mizuki proved him wrong.

"Actually Naruto thats just the version children are told, to keep them in the dark about the truth, since they don't want to scare them. In actuality the fourth Hokage was unable to kill the nine-tailed fox, and was forced to instead transform him into a human child. Inside you lies the spirit of the nine-tailed fox. The reason they hate you Naruto is because your not human. You are the nine-tailed fox kyuubi!" Naruto was struck dumb. He couldn't believe it. It had to be a poor joke or something. He had heard Iruka's parents had been killed by the Kyuubi thirteen years ago during the attack. He wasn't a fox, he was a boy. He turned to Iruka expecting to find out that it was just a joke or something of the sort. But the look on Iruka's face didn't say it was a joke. Iruka wasn't laughing and the pain on his face as real. Suddenly it sunk in. It all made sense. Everyone hated him, because he had killed their family and friends. They wanted to kill him because he had killed them. What if he went out of control and it happened all over again? Hinata's face ran through his mind. What if he hurt her...

Unable to bear the burden of his own thoughts he turned and ran. He ran to clear his mind. To dry the tears that streamed down his face. He wanted nothing more than to gain the respect of the people of Konoha, but he was the cause of so much pain. He couldn't bear it. He almost wanted to die.

Meanwhile Iruka managed to shake himself out of his shaken mind. Memories of the night his parents died had resurfaced and he had been unable to contradict Mizuki as he was lost in his memories. Mizuki smirked for a moment before taking off after Naruto. Iruka would take a moment to recover and he would use that time to find Naruto... and kill him. After a short time he saw Naruto running blindly through the forest in a relatively straight line. He was being such an easy target. Taking a giant shuriken off his back he threw it towards the oblivious Naruto who continued in a straight line. At the last moment a blur jumped in the way of the shurikens path and stopped its progress. Iruka had managed to catch up, and seeing the shuriken had used a massive amount of chakra to get in front of it and tackle Naruto to the ground to prevent it from hitting him. However he was unable to avoid it himself and it struck his back with a sickening thud. Naruto looked back at Iruka who was on top of him and saw the giant shuriken lodged in his back. Iruka who hated him had saved him from death by Mizuki? Everything kept switching itself around. One moment one person hated him while the other was his friend, the next moment the person who hated him saved his life from the person who was supposedly his friend? It made no sense!

Iruka spoke up first. "Naruto it's true that my parent's were killed by the nine-tailed fox. And it's true that at first I was no different than anyone else, and I despised you. However over time you opened my eyes. You are not the nine-tailed fox, you are Naruto. And no matter what you must remember that. You are human." Naruto's entire body quivered as his words washed over him, even so it was still to much to handle and he took off again. Mizuki smirked his triumph and continued after Naruto, assured that with a giant shuriken in his back, Iruka would be unable to interfere any more.

Naruto hopped from tree to tree, with the giant scroll on his back. Escape could be the only thing running through his mind. However Iruka had managed to catch him despite his injuries. "Naruto give me the scroll! If Mizuki finds you he will kill you and take it for himself! We must return it to the Hokage!" Naruto just landed on a branch and glanced back. Iruka was in mid-jump when Naruto launched himself towards him. However instead of handing him the scroll he brought his leg forwards and delivered a kick into the wounded Iruka's stomach with a force that was not proportionate to his size. Both landed on the ground below, Iruka barely managing to land on his feet, while Naruto landed in a crouched position.

Iruka released the jutsu he had been holding and transformed back into his real self. Mizuki. "Damn, that hurt. How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" He asked holding his sore stomach.

Naruto took the scroll off his back and set it on the ground before sitting down and leaning his back against a tree, before replying. "Because..." He released a jutsu he also had been holding and transformed back into himself. "I'm Iruka." Iruka had predicted what Naruto would do, and unlike what Mizkui thought it wasn't run blindly for as long as possible. Naruto, while it was a fact he screwed up a lot, he rarely made the same mistake twice. The first time he didn't know Mizuki was trying to kill him. Now that he did it was highly likely he would escape using stealth. Iruka felt his energy draining away. The blood loss from his wound was taking it's toll. Normally he could probably stand on about even ground with Mizuki, perhaps slightly higher. But he was not only wounded, but he had spent a great deal of energy to get ahead of Mizuki to distract him and give Naruto more time to escape. Right now he simply didn't have the energy to fight Mizuki.

Mizuki despite everything felt a need to know. So he asked. "Why do you continue to protect him Iruka? He is the reason your parents are dead! I know what your life was like growing up, he is the reason for that. You saw the look in his eyes, he's a beast. If we don't kill him now he could easily go back and terrorize the defenseless villagers. All he wants is revenge. We have to stop him before it's to late."

Iruka spoke slowly as even doing that was starting to seem difficult. "Yes. Your right. That is how a beast would act... But that's not Naruto. I have watched the boy growing up. I have a vague idea of the hell he's been through. But all this time not once did he threaten anyone for how they treated him. No instead he did something I'm not sure even I could do. He tried to get them to like him. Instead of trying to hurt them back for how they treated him or getting angry, he seeks to change how they see him. He's trying to gain their respect. That's not how a beast would act Mizuki, thats how a truly good hearted human would act. And despite everything I'm saying I can see on your face that you still plan on going after him to kill him. Well to my dying breath I will get in your way. I will not let you hurt him if it takes my very life."

Mizuki's face twisted in his vile smile and he spoke up. "Well then I was planning on letting you live, but since it seems you intend to be a nuisance I guess I'll just kill you now." He pulled a second giant shuriken from off his back and began twirling it, preparing to finish Iruka's life right then and there. Iruka rested his head against the tree trunk that he was sitting against. Despite his words he knew he really wouldn't be able to delay Mizuki any further. At the moment he was unsure he could even stand. He had lived a good life he supposed. True there was many things he had planned to do one day that he had yet to accomplish. However to die protecting his student... what more could a teacher want? What more honorable way was there to die?

However unknown to them Naruto was not only close by. He was listening to their entire conversation. And once more tears streamed down his face as Iruka's praise of him fell on his ears. Iruka recognized him. He had spent his entire life trying to get people to do that. Iruka was the first person to do that. Yes Hinata had been his friend since he could remember. But she didn't know the truth about him yet. Iruka did, and even with that still saw him as a person. A happiness he had never felt before held his heart in its warm embrace. And then he heard it end. He heard Mizuki declare that he would kill Iruka, his own co-worker. And Naruto's friend. And Naruto would have none of it. Naruto used a burst of speed and appeared in front of Iruka holding the scroll under one hand, glaring at Mizuki. He bared his teeth in the most feral growl he was capable of and said "You lay one finger on my sensei... And I'll kill you!"

Mizuki laughed. This child who couldn't even pass the exam to become the lowest rank of ninja in the village thought he could take on a chunin? True he held the nine-tailed fox within him, but he was a long way form controlling its power at whim. "Well well. How nice of you to come to me. It seems I won't have to track you down after all. You have made things so much easier for me. Looks like I will get to kill you first." His twisted smile gleamed as he prepared to strike down Naruto instead of Iruka.

Naruto stood his ground, the majority of his face shaded due to the forest's darkness. "Iruka-sensei. I'm going to beat up Mizuki-sensei. Is that ok with you?" Iruka couldn't believe his ears. True Mizuki wasn't the greatest ninja around, but he was still a chunin. And Naruto wasn't even a genin. He couldn't possibly win. But as Naruto turned his head slightly he saw the look on his face. Grim determination. Unable to bring himself to deny Naruto of this moment he simply nodded his head. Some of the light returned to his eyes as he saw Iruka's nod. Grinning brightly Naruto said "Well sensei it look's like you will get to see the jutsu I learned from this scroll after all. It was pretty damn hard, But I think I managed to do a pretty fine job if I do say so myself." Naruto crossed his hands in a hand sign. **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**! (Shadow clone technique)

Both Mizuki and Iruka were stunned. Naruto who had problems with a mere bunshin illusion had created so many solid bunshins that they filled the entire clearing. Then one of the many Naruto's spoke. "Let's go wild!" Mizuki's scream was heard throughout the entire forest. In the aftermath a very bruised, yet alive Mizuki was tied to a tree unconscious. While Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "He he. I may have overdone it a bit."

Iruka shook his head in wonder. The progress Naruto had made in such a short amount of time was astounding. Iruka decided now would be a good time. "Come here Naruto." Naruto's sheepish look appeared and he figured he was probably going to get his head rapped for going to far on Mizuki. He sauntered over to Iruka only to be pulled into a hug. For a moment he was confused. Then he just enjoyed it. It felt like what a family hug was supposed to feel like he was sure. Just as suddenly as he had hugged him Iruka pushed him away. Naruto noticed something felt different, and glanced around. He usually wore a pair of goggles on his forehead, but he saw them instead on the ground next to Iruka. Reaching up he felt to see what was on his head taking its place. The symbol of the leaf village greeted his searching hand. It was then he noticed Iruka's own Forehead protector was missing.

Naruto began to sputter. "B-b-b-but you said that there wasn't a feature in place to be promoted to genin for the scroll!" His confusion so apparent on his face that Iruka had to laugh.

"Thats correct Naruto, it seems for once you were listening." He laughed again at the embarrassed look on Naruto's face before continuing. "However ultimately I have the power to promote you, and based not on your skills with stealing the scroll, but based on your skill in defeating Mizuki as well as many of the choices you made tonight. I think you deserve genin. And even the council won't dare disagree after I file my report on Mizuki. Congratulations Naruto. You're officially a ninja of Konoha."

Later an Anbu discovered them, and they surrendered the scroll without hesitation. Despite the things he felt like saying, getting the scroll back to the Hokage was the most important thing at the moment, so he took it and left. Later several other ninja showed up and helped Iruka to the hospital where he was treated for his wounds. Naruto had been sent home by Iruka to get some sleep as he was sure the next day would be filled with activity. Mizuki was taken into custody and never heard from again.

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Gaara stared at the instructor who seemed extremely nervous and who's fumbling hands seemed to make the irritating process of waiting on him to grade the exams drag on. Finally unable to take it anymore the instructor told the children to go outside to wait for the results. Normally they would have to wait inside, and the children while eager to find out if they passed or not, gladly went outside to play while they could. After they left the instructor slumped down in his chair. He hated this position. That demon scared him shitless. He was the third one in a year to be placed in charge of the class. Apparently the two previous had "Annoyed" the intimidating redhead. They had lived just long enough to realize their mistake. He was trying his best but honestly even A class missions were not as scary as teaching with "Him" there. This had to be the first class in the history of Suna that if a student didn't like the curriculum for the day it was changed immediately for their entire class.

Of course it wasn't that he couldn't get the stuff he didn't like. It was just annoying. Gaara had a perfect memory. He never forgot anything. Everything was done how he wanted it. His room was perfectly neat, though void of any toys but one old teddy bear. Anyone who dared to touch that toy died on the spot. He had a thing for perfection. If it wasn't perfectly how he wanted it, then he had them change it... or he changed them.

Due to his likes and dislikes he was never forced to learn or graded on kunai or shuriken throwing. He learned only basic taijutsu but never lost. The only ninjutsu he learned was what he created himself, and a few basic other ones. Genjutsu he didn't consider worth his time. Yet despite his personal interests he never lost to anyone in combat. As a matter of fact he never even got touched. Even chunin were unable to do anything to him. And all this before he even graduated to a genin. So naturally it was no surprise that he got a perfect score on the exam, after all they only tested him on areas he himself agreed to.

While they waited outside Gaara kept to himself. He associated with no one. And no one was stupid enough to try and associate with him. There was only one person who he ever kept in his confidence. And she didn't go to the academy. He had met her shortly after he had entered the academy, one evening at sunset. He thought back briefly to that day.

_Flashback_

_Gaara gazed at the setting sun and the blazing red sky that accompanied it. His first week at the academy was almost over and he found it to be a most irritating place. However they did have some knowledge that he sought, so he went anyways. He didn't like the instructor much however and was considering getting rid of him when a voice spoke up._

_"M'lord? M'lord is that you?" He turned his head to gaze at the source that had interrupted his thoughts. His eyes fell on what appeared to be a young girl, however there could be no doubt that she was not human. While she had mostly human features, she had pointy ears that stuck out of the top of her head, and none on the side where most people do. The skin around her eyes also was dark in almost like a mask, but the most noticeable feature about her was the tail. Yes the big furry striped tail. She appeared to be a cross between a human and a raccoon, which of course isn't possible. After all humans do not breed with raccoons. Yet her appearance was definitely different from that which he had found to be relatively normal._

_He answered short and simple. "Who and what are you?" If she was a threat he would not hesitate to kill her. Sand accompanied his subconscious thoughts and began to shift around until she was completely surrounded, even if not yet touched by it._

_Seeing the sand moving apparently by itself she decided that it was in fact the one she sought. Bowing down she answered him. "I am Makari a raccoon demon, and your humble serf. As you have been gone for quite a while I decided to come see if you had decided to change locations again, and if so to request that I continue to serve you as I have in the past."_

_He reasoned for a few moments and it occurred to him that the Shukaku was a raccoon demon. Perhaps she thought him the actual Shukaku? "You seem to be confused. I am not the Shukaku. My name is Gaara. The Shukaku merely lives inside me. You should leave now. I have no need for anyone. People cannot be trusted."_

_She raised her head slightly. "M'lord I am aware that you are indeed human and that my actual lord lives inside thee. However as long as he lives inside thee you are my master. I have served him for over two hundred years, I assure you I would never betray you. I swear on my soulstone that that I will serve you both to the end of my days."_

_He was slightly confused however he betrayed none of it on his face. "Soulstone? What is that exactly? Don't use words that I don't understand unless you explain them." He said menacingly._

_She realized that of course he would not know what a soulstone was and apologized. She reached inside her shirt and pulled forth a necklace, that had a golden stone glowing faintly attached to it. "This is my soulstone. As the word implies my very soul is contained inside this stone. Unlike humans who's souls are contained in their body, demons souls are contained inside these. I will leave my soul itself in your hands as a sign of my commitment. At any time should you will it you can destroy it with your sand. If you do so I become mortal and lose most of my power." She held the stone out to him in a manner that told him it was her most precious object._

_Cautiously taking it from her he noticed it was faintly warm to the touch. But even more so he noticed that by merely holding the stone he could sense her. It was like he could sense her emotions, not thoughts, just emotions. He could tell she was anxious, but meant everything she said. At first he was unsure if it was a trick. But the more he felt it the more sure he was that it was genuine. It truly felt like he was holding her soul in his hands. He supposed he could probably trust her. After all, she wasn't human. And humans were the ones who couldn't be trusted._

_End Flashback_

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Kamibatsu was enjoying his day off. He and taken the day to go up into the nearby hills to go on a picnic. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing. Truly a peaceful day. So he was pretty unhappy when he felt the summons coming from some of the dragon elders. They of course could not send him the reason, it was simply a feeling telling him he was being summoned. But he was irritated enough with having to do that damn angels bidding during his vacation. He would be damned if his own kind would not give him his space during his time off. So he ignored them. His "Sister" was much more important that some minor dispute they always wanted him to settle. Being the emperor of dragons was just annoying at times. They wanted you to decide everything, even if they could find a solution themselves. Well this time they could find it themselves as far as he was concerned. They needed to grow up.

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The summoner sighed as he continued to send out the summons, and continued to receive no answer. Granted he knew that Neo Bahamut was often busy with the duties of being a tailed beast as well. But at least usually he sent a reply of some sort. This time it felt almost like he was being ignored. Then he heard the footsteps of one of the elders approaching. This was going to be a long day. "You there. Why have you not contacted his majesty yet? We don't have all day. This is of the utmost urgency."

The summoner sighed inwardly before replying. "M'lord, I have been sending the summons for several hours. He won't reply. It is possible he is busy with his duties as a Tailed beast."  
The elder shook his giant head. "Nonsense. Tailed beast duties while they take a great deal of time, do not interfere with his duties as our leader, and emperor. I don't care what you have to do. Get in contact with him. Our own lives may depend on it." Turning around he walked out, his giant footsteps resounding throughout the large caverns.

The summoner drooped his head. He was trying but there really wasn't much he could do beyond what he was. He could send out actual messengers normally, but leaving the mountain strongholds had been forbidden recently. Ever since dragons had started to be hunted by some group of humans the leaders had become paranoid, and refused to let anyone leave their place of safety. To make matters worse most of the dragons did not keep their soulstones in the stronghold, as they were kept by humans they trusted in shrines elsewhere. Apparently some of the stone had been found by this group and the dragons who owned them had no choice but to attempt to retrieve them. The names of those dragons who left disappeared from the scroll which held all their names, meaning they had been killed as well. They had seen no signs of any of the dead ones attempting to reincarnate themselves, meaning their soulstones had most likely been taken as well.

He smelled ill omens for the future. But all he could do was attempt to summon the emperor back to assist them, and he was not answering. Even the idea sent chills coursing down his lengthy spine. Humans who went out of their way to hunt down one of the strongest race of demons in existence, And the worst part was that they were successful. There were theories of demons at work behind the scenes, but no proof as of yet. Things wouldn't get better until someone showed them the real power of dragons, The problem was that the strongest dragons were in fact the elders (and the emperor of course) and the council while strong physically had become weak mentally. They were afraid. Eventually the others would get tired of being cooped up in the mountains, and fly outside to eliminate the human threat in mass. Kami-sama wouldn't be happy about that. After all he prized the lives of humans above demons.

He sighed one final time and got back to sending the summons. Indeed, bad omens for the future.

**AN: Well I decided to leave it at that for this chappy. I normally take a REALLY long time to finish each one so I figured I would release this one just a bit sooner than normal. Next one should be out sooner than what most of them have been also. Anyways... READ AND REVIEW! You know you want to. Also yes I'm sorry sorry if this chapter was mainly something most of you have already seen or read several hundred times, but I felt the need to put my input on how it went, with my own twist of course. Hope you enjoyed it, until next time!**


	5. Flames of Eternity

**AN: Sorry I know that took awhile to put out. Not a REALLY long chapter but should be something after all the time I have delayed. Leave me reviews please. They makes me happy.**

**Flames of Eternity**

The front gate had been attacked only yesterday. At first it had been laughably easy to repel their attacks. Mere humans were powerless against one of the strongest race of demons in existence. But then HE showed up. Suddenly the front gate fell almost instantly. Those guarding it were wiped out in a matter of minutes. The high priest known as the final Demonhunter was here. He displayed power that simply wasn't possible in a human. Yet he was human, and he was using it. The dragons had been pushed back to the final stronghold. The last defense. There could be no more retreat. There was nowhere to retreat to. Here they fought with a fury that had not been displayed in centuries. But even so they were slowly losing.

There had been word sent out a few months ago for every dragon to return to the stronghold when the huntings began. Less than twenty had not answered, the rest were there. Every dragon in the entire world minus those twenty, were at this stronghold. And yet even with this combined power they were losing. The priests had developed a device that allowed them to insert the soulstones of defeated demons into special weapons, and use their power to unleash tremendous destruction. Every dragon that fell to this new power, in turn had his soul collected and turned against his allies.

The power was not easy to control however and most priests could not use more than one or two in a weapon at a time. Several of the elite however had up to seven in their weapons, and they were proving to be extremely effective against these dragons. The head priest had not displayed his weapon yet, however there were rumors of it having as many as fifteen soulstones in it, over twice what even the elites had.

However just as the final stand was about to fall. HE showed up. One of the most powerful dragons alive. Son of the emperor himself. Onaga was here. Using a variety of dark techniques not seen in almost a thousand years he turned the tide.

Onaga was angry. He was full of fury that could not be compared by anyone else there. He had given his all to defend the lives of a village of humans years ago, and they had taken advantage of him and captured him, fully intent on sealing him within a human. The betrayal had changed him down to even his soul. His once glittering green scales had turned a dark black. His hatred showed through to even the surface. When he had heard that humans dared to attack their stronghold his fury reached new heights. He would erase their scourge from the face of this earth. He would show them terror unlike the world had seen in over a thousand years. The dark prince was about to unleash hell on earth. Arriving at the battlefield he saw corpses littered everywhere. Both dragon and human. He saw the difficulties that those still alive were having. Well he wasn't about to avenge the fallen. He would let them avenge themselves. Building up energy so dark that it couldn't even be called black he unleashed it with a roar that shook the entire valley. And the dead, rose once more.

Wai Jan had read many things in the books back at the academy. He was one of the elite monks who was capable of controlling seven soulstones at once. He had learned that fear was a base emotion, and the ways to block out such a useless thing. But what he saw made him forget the training that blocked out such a useless emotion. Instead that useless emotion took control of several of his bodily functions, and told them it was ok to relax. And so they did, and something besides the smell of death filled the air. His and many other monks undershorts would need to be changed later. All the dragons they had killed already were getting on their feet again. Which wasn't possible as their souls were trapped in the monks weapons, not to mention the wounds they had received made such a thing impossible. Yet they once again shook the valley in a simultaneous roar, that was unlike anything Wai Jan had ever heard. But even as bad as that was, one thing worse happened. His dead allies (bless their souls for their sacrifices) were rising again as well. Only, humans couldn't regenerate from deathly wounds. They couldn't stand up when they had been almost torn in two. They couldn't move when nearly all the flesh had been burned from their bodies. He was seeing something that he only vaguely remembered from books. Necromancy.

However his training took over and he began using his holy power to smite these abominations. The power of light burned the undead into ash, and the monks once again began their fight. Wai had just destroyed yet another undead when he saw his brother on the ground not far from him, with a nasty looking wound on one of his legs. Hurrying to him he examined it. "Don't worry brother, you may not be able to fight anymore but you will live to get to the healers. I'll get one as soon as possible." Standing up he prepared to find a healer when he heard his brother moving to stand. Turning around he saw him standing but not even an evidence of pain on his face. He had always admired his brothers resistance to pain but this was ridiculous. "Brother lay back down, don't injure yourself further. Moving around will only make your injuries..." It was then he noticed something he hadn't before. His brother had a large gash in his neck, an injury that simply wasn't possible to live through. Yet he stood there as if it didn't exist. And the injury was hardly bleeding. Wai suddenly realized that the wound must have been made a while ago, and now it wasn't bleeding because there was no blood left to bleed. His brother was dead. Shock set in. People died he knew that. But not his brother, never his brother. No matter what happened it was always to everyone else. Him and his brother would last through anything, injured perhaps but never to die. Weakly Wai stretched his hand forth as if to call his brother back to the land of the living. His brother took the chance and introduced his teeth to Wai's throat, and gave Wai the initiation to becoming one of the walking dead.

Instances like this were happening all over. And suddenly the losing dragons turned the tide and began to overwhelm the monks. Unable to fight both their living enemies and the ones they had already defeated, not to mention their own dead allies, the monks began to fall left and right. Eventually they had wiped out all of them... all but one. The leader. However he didn't even seem to care that all his allies were dead. Onaga watched from on top a tower, commanding his undead horde with his thoughts. They surrounded the last monk from all sides. Not attacked simply forming a circle around him. Then he gave the command verbally. "Attack!" He roared. His undead horde surged forwards as one, determined to overwhelm this final foe. He merely smiled.

Quickly forming a series of hand seals the monk slammed the palms of his hands to the ground proclaimed his jutsu. **Light style: Wrath of the Gods**! A giant sigil appeared on the ground extending even to the outer edges of the giant horde. An explosion of light made the entire valley enshrouded in a golden light that lasted for nearly a minute. When it finally cleared their stood the final monk, unphased, and unhurt by the horde. While said horde was no more than ash that covered a vast area.

Onaga was irritated. That had taken quite a bit of chakra to raise that horde. Of course that jutsu the monk had used must have taken a lot too, so he took that as a small consolation. Deciding that the saying was true "If you wanted anything done right, you had to do it yourself" he leapt from the tower allowing his wings to carry him gracefully to the ground. Reaching it he eyes the monk disdainfully. "You have a lot of nerve charging into our territory like this. Humans who enter here uninvited don't leave again, dead or alive."

The monk smiled as if he was humoring a child. "You speak as if you have the choice over whether I leave or not. But I will leave, alive, and carrying your heads. I will purify the scourge that is dragons from the entire world. Only then can all the lives of the innocents killed by your wretched kind rest in peace."

Onaga while angry, refused to be baited into attacking blindly. Despite him being a mere mortal, this monk was pretty powerful. If he made a mistake it was possible the man could make good on his threat. Despite him being human, his control over the holy element gave him an edge not to be underestimated. Deciding that his normal dragon form would not suffice for mobility to fight this man Onaga switched to something a bit more agile. Gathering his energy, seals began to appear on his body. Seven seals total could be seen after he was finished. Onaga had been gathering as much energy the past few years as he could, but he still had not managed to achieve the eighth seal. Perhaps killing this monk would be enough. With seven seals his body appeared almost human. Of course the scaly skin with wings and a tail kind of took away from that illusion. But he definitely looked more human than dragon. He began to prepare his first jutsu for this battle. Utilizing his own unique blend of life and shadow elements he began the fight with a bang. **Secret Techniques: Unholy Nova!**

A black ball of energy surged forth towards the monk, hitting the ground not far from him it exploded sending waves of dark energy pulsing in all directions. The monk understood that getting hit by it was not in his best interests leapt upwards and threw several paper seals towards Onaga. They ripped through the dark energy and several landed on his scaly flesh. His roars of agony echoed for miles around as they burned through his scales and into his muscle tissue. Managing to get himself free from them Onaga focused his chakra on regeneration of the damaged areas.

The monk unwilling to give him time for a reprieve rushed in close bringing forth his silver sword that he kept sheathed on his back. Focusing holy energy into it he stuck at Onaga not really caring it the blade itself made contact. Holy energy burst forth from the blade rippling towards the demon like golden blades of doom. Onaga stretched his wings and took to the sky avoiding them by mere inchs. Pooling chakra in one of his lungs he combusted it and sent streams of fire towards the monk. Pulling forth a shield from seemingly nowhere he blocked the fire as if it were a light breeze. Onaga was astonished. True that hadn't been his hottest fire but, it was hot enough to melt even tempered steel. For a shield to block it was if it was nothing was unthinkable. Then the monk spoke. "Your fire isn't bad I suppose. But it's nowhere near HIS level. His would have melted such a low quality shield like butter. Your nothing like the eight horned dragon who I fought all those years ago. You shall fall, and after you I shall annihilate every dragon in this valley."

A silver blade that was imbued with holy element, and a shield that could block fire. This would be truly difficult. Onaga decided it was time he leveled the playing field. He extended his right hand out from his body, and began to chant. "From the darkest reaches of my soul, I call forth a blade of darkness. May your unholy edge rip my enemies souls from their very bodies, and give them an agony that can't be compared to anything in this world. SOUL TAKER, I SUMMON THEE!" A sword began to form as he chanted and by the end of his chant it finished forming itself. The hilt seemed to be made of an extremely dark ebony, with a blood red ruby attached to both the blade and the hilt. The blade itself reflected no light, and seemed to instead absorb it into nothingness. The Soul Taker was a legendary blade that only the strongest of dark element demons could use. And even most of them could not control its full power. However other demons couldn't even begin to summon its might. Onaga knew he was a long way from mastering this blade, but even so its power was enough to completely dominate almost any opponent. With this blade he was relatively sure that he stood on almost the same level as a tailed beast. This monk would now see true power. This blade gave the user full mastery over the darkness element, mastery rivaling the tailed beasts.

Onaga knew however there was a limited time that he could use the sword, or its power would consume him. The better you were at controlling it the longer you could use it. For him unfortunately that time was less than five minutes. He would have to end it in that amount of time. Channeling energy without even needing hand seals he brought forth the blade towards his opponent and unleashed the dark energy in a powerful jutsu. **Dark style: Unholy Lightning!** Black lightning surged forth and struck at the monk with a fury that put most storms to shame. The monk was rightfully surprised. The power level of this dragon had spiked to levels he had not even come close to anticipating. If this dragon could keep this up for an extended period of time there was no way he could win. Onaga pressed his advantage sending one jutsu after another, while the monk could do no more than evade or block, and the stress was showing. After all despite his power he was only human, and fatigue was a very real enemy of his. However despite his obvious advantage Onaga began to worry. His time limit was approaching, and the monk was still alive. He had demonstrated techniques that had surprised Onaga greatly, however this sword of course blew through them like paper. But Onaga refused to accept the possibility of a loss. He would bring this monk down even if he had to do it up close and personal.

Rushing close Onaga slashed from his right to his left, attempting to cleave him in two. The monk evaded barely and prepared to counterattack, however Onaga continued his spin and used his tail to strike the opening the monk left as he prepared to strike. The monk was sent flying from the force of the attack and Onaga took full advantage of it. Once again without even needing seals he sent forth another jutsu. **Dark style: Chill of the grave!** Black ice began to form on the monks body as he flew through the air, it encased his arms disabling his jutsu. Onaga rushed forth again and struck with a quick draw slash, which is designed to be extremely fast, but normally leaves the user open to an attack for a few seconds afterwards. However with his opponent unable to attack this wasn't really a problem. The monk seeing that he would be unable to avoid the blade, used one of his frozen arms to partially deflect the path so it didn't hit his main body. The blade cut through the ice, and his arm, like butter. Then there was the pain. He had been cut before. Many times as a matter of fact. But this didn't feel anything like those times. This struck him on a level that couldn't be described. He had trained his mind and body to withstand pain to the point that if you cut him in two he would merely grimace. But the agony was so great from this he dropped to the ground unable to do anything, as his mind was numb to anything but pain.

Onaga felt a great satisfaction. True he had less than a minute left to use the sword, but he was going to make this human pay on levels that most people could barely comprehend. He was going to learn just how much the human mind could take before it collapsed. Onaga shook the monk till he could see a semblance of consciousness, satisfied that the monk would actually feel what was next he took the tip of the blade and began to carve lines in the monks face, enjoying the look of agony that his face was host to. It was a pain that went beyond screaming. The body lost the ability to do that at some point long before this, this was far beyond anyones capability of screaming. This was the kind of pain that drove people to insanity. After all, this was a pain that reached your very soul. Finally reaching his last few seconds Onaga stood up and drove the sword down through the writhing body of the oblivious monk. Or thats what he tried to do. Something he could not begin to comprehend happened. The monk rolled out of the way. It was inconceivable. The pain from the Soul Taker was so great that even a demon would most likely be incapable of coherent thought. Yet this monk actively avoided his strike. Knowing he had no time to think it over he struck again, this time the monk managed to get his sword in the way. His remaining arm had apparently become unfrozen. Onaga pressed the Soul Taker, desperate to finish this before he lost the ability to control the blade. The monks blade cracked under the pressure. One final push and the Soul Taker drove through the silver forged blade, but alas Onaga had no more time. Feeling the blade begin to try and draw on his own soul for energy he was forced to release it, and it returned to the shadows from whence it came. Pressing downwards without the blade he brought his claws to bear on the injured monk.

The monk felt his blade crack, but he could also feel the desperation in the demon to finish this. He didn't know why, but he had to last a few seconds more. Only a few. But the blade never came. Managing to open his eyes slightly he saw the blade disperse back into nothingness. However he saw the demon continue the attack with his claws. But that didn't matter. If he could no longer use that accursed blade, then he himself would be the winner. Even missing an arm the monk was sure of this.

Sending a surge of pure light element into his opponent, he managed to knock him away in order to gain some slight distance. The monk stood up on his feet once more, oblivious to the missing limb that was starting to bleed once more as it began to thaw. His confidence had returned as if there had never been a doubt in his mind of his victory. He once again took a fighting stance, prepared to once more fight. It seemed he had gotten his second wind.

Onaga however was not as prepared. The last jutsu he had used had pretty much been an all or nothing technique. It had been intended to kill his opponent no matter what. Failure had not even entered his mind when he had used it. He had used every bit of energy he could muster to do it. And now he was barely able to keep on his feet. Two separate options battled inside his mind. His animal instinct told him to run, live to fight another day. As long as you lived you were not defeated. But his pride refused this. His pride pronounced it was impossible for him, the son of the most powerful dragon in existence, to lose to a mere human. The very idea was inconceivable. Deep down he knew what he should do. He knew what would be the correct course of action. But one option won out over the other one. So he resigned himself... not to defeat. But to victory. He resigned his fate to defeat this mortal at any cost. There was one final method he had that would allow him to win. A short term victory, that would cost him in the long run. But he could not lose here. He refused.

The monk began to gather his energy, preparing to attack when he noticed the sudden change in his opponent's behavior. Then he saw it. The thing that demons simply didn't do because it meant the end of their immortality. Onaga retrieved his soulstone from where he had it stored. Then he raised his soulstone in the air and awoke all its energy from its deep slumber. It shone a black light that could be described as nothing but demonic, and energy filled the air that rivaled even the short time when the soultaker had been active. Onaga raised his soulstone and gently caressed it with his lips. His final farewell. And then he ate it. He devoured his soulstone, his own soul, to achieve incredible power, at the cost of his own immortality.

The monk saw this and for a moment he tried to convinced himself that this hadn't happened. Demons prized their own lives above all else. He had heard that it was possible for demons to sacrifice their immortality for great power, but he also knew it would never happen. A demon would rarely sacrifice his life for another demon unless it was a mate. A demon would NEVER sacrifice his immortality for anything. Nothing was more important to them. And yet he had just done it. It went against everything he had ever learned about them. It made no sense. He wanted to ask, he wanted to know why. But the very idea of asking a demon anything of importance left a bad taste in his mouth. Deciding there were some things he could wait to learn, he attacked.

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Naruto walked quietly into the room, unnoticed. It was several minutes before anyone noticed he was there. Then the person who noticed. "Hey Naruto this is for genin. Only people who PASSED the exams are allowed in here."

Naruto jumped on the desk of the boy who spoke, then got close to his face before speaking. "See this Shikimaru?" He said pointing to his forehead protector. "This means I DID pass! Eat that moron!" He straightened an enormous grin on his face. Hinata felt slightly ashamed as she saw him, realizing she wasn't the first one to notice he had entered, but she was proud nonetheless. When his name had not been called at the ceremony her heart had sank. But seeing him here she felt elated. Perhaps they would get to be on the same team! Then they could spend more time together, without anyone thinking about it. Today was the day the teams were going to be picked. She crossed her fingers and prayed silently.

Iruka walked in the room, and it instantly quieted down. This was the moment they found out who their teammates would be for the next few years. Iruka began to call the names off slowly. About halfway through he said. "Team Seven. Uzukami Naruto. Haruna Sakura. Hyuuga Hinata." Naruto crowed loudly while Hinata silently thanked the ever watchful Kami-sama. Sakura on the other hand hung her head in disappointment. She had been hoping to get on Sasukes team.

"Team Eight. Uchiha Sasuke. Inuzaka Kiba. Abureme Shino." The plan had been to have Sasuke on Team Seven, however at his own personal request they had switched him with Hinata. He said he didn't want to be placed with Sakura as she seemed to be to obsessed with him to function as a proper teammate, and Naruto was annoying. Of course he hadn't told them he found Kiba annoying as well, but he was more tolerable than Naruto, and Shino was obviously a better choice than Sakura. Not that he really wanted any teammates to begin with, however compared to the alternative he chose these. Not that normally a genin had any choice in the matter, but he was considered a golden child. He was the prodigy of the year, the last of his bloodline. The only surviving Uchiha. He got special treatment every now and then.

Iruka watched the faces of the children as he named off their teams. Mixed emotions could be seen on any given one. Afterwards he informed the children of the names of their would be sensie's, and left them to their own devices as he went to take a break. Their sensie's would come pick them up shortly. The one for team seven was named Kenji Tanaka. They knew nothing about him except that he was an elite jounin. And that he was not originally from Konoha. And outsiders becoming elite jounin is extremely unusual.

He was the very first one to arrive. He walked into the room and spoke in a voice that demanded attention, while being very quiet. "Team Seven, follow me." Those words spoken he walked out. They scrambled to their feet and rushed after him, not wanted to lose him. He lead them to the top of the building where he had them sit. It was then they managed to see what he actually looked like. He was fairly short for an adult, Iruka would be a full head and a half taller than him. He was no hair showing, and the top of his head was covered with a dark green bandana. He wore dark red sunglasses, with green rims. His clothing as all dark red, with the exception of his jounin vest, which was the usual dark green. He had a pair of black gloves tucked in his belt, and the only apparent weapons on him was his kunai holster on his left hip.

Once again in that quiet authorized tone he spoke. "Since I am required to by protocol I will introduce myself. My name is Tanaka, Kenji Tanaka. You may call me Tanaka Sensei. Nothing else will be permitted. I am an elite jounin although I am originally from a different country, though through various circumstances I was allowed to join the leaf village. I have no family affiliated with Konoha. Things I like would be finishing a mission without any delays, large steaks, and people who can follow orders. Things I dislike would be circumstances that delay mission accomplishment, unhealthy food, and people who can't follow orders. My only dream is to pay back a dept to someone for something which happened a long time ago. Next." He stopped speaking and glanced at Naruto, it was fairly obvious that he expected him to start. Naruto stared back at him blankly for a moment then suddenly realized since no one else was speaking he would have to go next. Standing up he grinned widely, and began to introduce himself. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. You can call me Naruto. I made gennin despite what many people thought. I don't have any family here in Konoha either. Things I like would be my best friend, ramen, and... learning new jutsu! Things I don't like are... People who talk down to others as if they are worthless, and people who pick on those who are weaker than themselves. My dream is to become the next Hokage!" Feeling fully satisfied with his introduction he sat back down again.

Hinata didn't want to make a bad impression by waiting to go last so she spoke up next. "I am Hinata Hyuuga, from the Hyuuga clan here in Konoha. I am also gennin. Things I like would be my best friend, people who try their hardest, and success after giving my all for something. Things I don't like would be watching my friends suffer... um... and disappointing people who are trusting in me. Thats all I can think of at the moment." She sat back down hoping she hadn't made a bad impression.

Sakura sighed realizing it was her turn. She didn't really care one way or the other about Hinata being on her team, but that she had to be on the same team as Naruto, and not Sasuske really irritated her. Standing up she introduced herself. "My name is Sakura Haruno. Things I like would be pink..." She turned her head for a second as an image of Sasuke popped into her head. "and flowers too. Things I don't like would be annoying people..." She glared at Naruto who seemed blissfully unaware. " and.." She paused for a second to think of something to make an impact. "Raman." Naruto looked like someone had just killed a kitten by throwing it off the face of the Hokage monument. The horror on his face was as evident as the orange jumpsuit that he always wore. Sakura smirked as she saw her dig had the desired effect. She continued on. "My dream is to prove my worth to someone." Once again she looked off in the distance thinking of Sasuke.

Tanaka sighed inwardly. He had a group that consisted of a hyperactive troublemaker, a quiet girl with seemingly no confidence, and a dreamy fangirl. Life was going to go in many possible directions, and most of them he didn't like. But at least Uzumaki was on the team. His odds of meeting "That person" again were much higher with Uzumaki there. Resigning himself to his fate he cleared his throat to make sure he had their attention. "Your training begins tomorrow, be at training field nine at six A.M. Sharp. Being tardy will not be tolerated. Dismissed." With that he formed a single hand sign, and disappeared. The genin sat there for a moment watching the space he had occupied until recently. Naruto spoke up first. "THAT WAS SO COOL! I heave to learn how to do that!" He yelled jumping to his feet and pumping his fist in the air. Hinata smiled without saying anything, while Sakura humphed at Naruto's annoying outburst.

Sakura declared that she was going home to prepare for the training the next day and left hurriedly. Naruto and Hinata stayed on the roof for awhile before heading down together. After reaching the outside of the building they reluctantly went their separate ways, they wanted to hang out together, but both knew they needed to be ready for the next day. Things were about to begin.

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Karma has a way of hitting you the hardest. It can cut you deeper than any sword. Stab you truer than any blade. Kamibatsu got a taste of this first hand. He was doing something that forty years ago would have been unimaginable. He was being lazy. Yes he felt the call of the dragon clan awhile ago, but decided to let them handle their own problems. He was on vacation after all. And despite that he had to still answer to Kami-sama's bidding, he would be damned if he gave up even more time to settle petty squabbles of dragons who had grown fat with luxury, not having to do anything for themselves in generations. After all how bad could it be? He would check on it in a week or so. Nothing big could happen in that small amount of time.

Days had gone by and he went out on one of his designated "hunting" trips. For a day he was a bounty hunter again. No big targets, it was just a day at work. Track down some small fry, eliminate them, come home. That was how it was supposed to be that day. Perhaps karma decided to pay him back for being lazy. He didn't know the reason. What he did know was anger unlike he had felt in years. He came home expecting to find his beloved "Sister" waiting for him, perhaps even gone to the market. But finding his so called parents sitting around the table, the mother crying, and the father gruffly saying it had to be done. Oh yes he was pissed. She wasn't there.

There was noble that lived a few weeks from there. Every now and then he came by to demand supplies from the village in return for his "Protection". This time he demanded girls. And Kamibatsu's sister ended being one of the ones given. Five girls had been demanded and she was one of the ones the village agreed on. It was for the sake of the village, and no parents had the right to refuse. The mother wanted to despite that but the father understood that they had no more right than any of the others to say no. In his gruff way he tried to comfort her.

Kamibatsu found out what had happened and anger filled him to the brim. A true hero could be born this day. Someone with his skills could easily gather the men of the village and form a militia and storm this minor nobles property and take back the girls that was theirs. He could easily turn from the ugly duckling into the greatest hero this village had ever seen. The idea crossed his mind for a brief moment. He laughed at it. His good conscience told him to leave the village and go fight alone, they would only slow him down anyways. But he didn't listen to his good conscience... he listened to his bad conscience. As his parents stood in horror and the sight of their son walking through the village slaughtering the people who resided within, the fires that streamed from his mouth burned the rest. Flames lit up the twilight as the village roared with life... and death.

He knew of a thing called pity, it was that thing humans had when they were to weak to kill something. Weakness was not a problem for him. Man, woman, and children he cared not. As far as he was concerned they brought this on themselves. The moment he had been "born" here he had become a temporary guardian deity of this village. They had betrayed their deity, and now they got their just deserts. As he strolled back up to the hill where his parents stood watching in horror his father managed to gasp out. "What the hell are you?"

A smile graced face, the same face reflecting flames from the village below. "Why wouldn't you know best 'Father'? After all you named me, and you named me correctly. I am Kamibatsu. Gods punishment." A giant blade cleaved them in two as they fell fear staining their faces as surely as their blood stained their clothes. As he walked away the words of one of the villagers returned to him.

"Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you?" A woman asked from beneath a beam that had fallen inside her house that he had set afire.

"You willingly gave up the only thing in this entire world that means anything to me. The only thing that kept this village safe from me was her." He calmly said as he killed her husband who rushed to protect her.

"Why is she so special!" She screamed. "Others had to be sent too. Its not like she was the only one who had to be given up. You don't see any of the others families doing this. Is an entire village worth less than one girl..." She cut off as she began to cough. The smoke from the building choking her.

He answered as calmly as if he was at a bar be Que. "Thats because they are all to weak to defend whats precious to them, that or the girls they gave up were not really that precious to them in the first place. Either way it's none of my concern. And frankly yes. This entire village is worth less than her. To me this entire world is worth less than her, and if I have to destroy this entire world to keep her safe I will. Good bye." After that he left her, hearing her screaming curses at him until flames drowned her in its deafening roar. With her birth the demon of vengeance within him had gone to sleep. With her disappearance, it had awoken louder than ever. He had lost her once, he would not lose her again. Everything else was meaningless.

He walked away from the village they had both been born in, the black flames marking his departure. This village would burn for eternity to pay for its crime. The people here were the lucky ones of course. He had something special planned for those who actually took her. They would experience true agony. Agony felt even by their souls.

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The next morning Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura met up at the designated field, to find their sensie already there. They were all about ten minutes early so they were confident that they made a good impression. They were wrong. "Your early. You will all be punished. Any questions?"

All three of them were surprised however Naruto spoke up first. "You said to be here at 6 A.M. Isn't early better than late?!"

Tanaka disappeared and reappeared behind Naruto and hit the back of his head with an open palm. Naruto got a close up view of the grass. He noticed that the lawn had been mowed recently, it still had that smell. Tanak spoke up while Naruto still tried to figure out what had happened. "I did NOT say 6 A.M. I said 6 A.M. SHARP! That means exactly 6 A.M. Not a minute early or late. No early is not better than late. Being early can cost the lives of your teammates just as surely as being late. For example. If two teams of three are supposed to intercept one team of five at a set point, at a set time, and one team makes it there first and engages the team of five alone, they might very well lose all their lives in the process, then the second team of three being on time may engage as they were supposed to but they may win or they may even lose. Either way you cost the lives of your team mates. If someone gives an approximate time then fine, a little early is fine. But if given an exact time be there EXACTLY at that time. Calculation is everything. If you want to be on my team you will learn it, you will master it. You will understand that everything is achieved by calculation, and execution. Only then can you become elite."

Naruto had turned his mind into "listen what you say but not really pay attention mode" until he heard the words "you" and "elite". Suddenly he re-ran everything Tanaka had just said through his mind over again. He didn't quite understand it all, but if it meant he could become elite then fine, he would pay attention. After all to become Hokage, one had to be "elite"

Tanaka noticed the sudden change in Naruto's body posture, and figured he was actually paying attention now. He could tell right off the bat the other two would listen to what he said, but this one was going to be difficult. When you broke it down all three of them were going to try and prove themselves worthy to someone special to them. Sakura wanted to prove herself to that Uchiha kid. Hinata wanted to prove herself to Naruto. Naruto wanted to prove himself to... Well Tanaka wasn't sure exactly who that was, but it didn't matter. They all had the same basic goal. He just had to use that to make them learn. "Sit up." Naruto quickly got off his position face down on the ground and sat up with a special look on his face. Tanaka would later learn that said look meant he was fully ready to learn.

Tanaka cleared his throat and began. "Todays training will be as follows. When I say go you have to land one blow on me. It's not going to happen alone. You are going to have to work together to do it. Note even if I have to block you then you win. Any type of blow on my actual body counts as a pass for this exercise. You have until noon to accomplish this. No food until then. If you do not achieve it by then, then none of you get any food. Everyone understand?" They nodded each with their mind on the game. Tanaka spoke again. "Also keep this in mind. If you don't come at me to kill, you won't even get close. Weapons are allowed, after all I shall be using weapons as well. Very well. Begin!" Shouting at them to start he jumped away and grabbed the gloves he carried in his belt. Clapping his hands together he separated them and they kids noticed that wires connected the fingers together. Their first day of training had begun.

**AN: Sorry guys, I know I took FOREVER to finish that one. Been pretty busy with work, and my time off has been pretty erratic. Despite that here it is. If the next one isn't out sooner than the last one I give you all permission to hit me a few times with a Baka stick. Anywho I hope you enjoyed it. Leave reviews please! They makes me happy.**


	6. Mental Clarity

**AN: WHATS THIS? YOU MEAN THE AUTHOR DIDN'T FALL OFF A CLIFF? WHOA?! Yah I know its been awhile, but heres chapter 6. Leave reviews please. I love them.**

**Mental Clarity**

There are times in your life when everything slows down, and you can suddenly see everything with a clarity that is equivalent to someone who's vision is so bad they can barely see three feet in front of them, suddenly being able to see with the eyes of an eagle. Moments such as these a normal person finds themselves suddenly able to achieve unimaginable things. This is often brought about by sudden bursts of adrenaline that increase not only the users physical abilities but their mental clarity as well. Events appear to be in slow motion, and their bodies seem to move at normal speed while everything around them moves slowly.

One the flip side of the same coin there are times when time seems to slow in everything but your perception. A drop of water takes forever to fall, or a fist going for your face taking forever to hit you, but at the same time, being able to see it yet not avoid it. This is caused by an imperfect adrenaline burst, sending the adrenaline only to the part of your brain that allows you to perceive events, but not to the area which limits your physical abilities. There is also times where a persons body seems to be able to move faster than their ability to realize its movements. This part however is much more uncommon than the others.

Of the three possibilities, Naruto was in the process of the second one. He saw the kick that was coming at a speed he knew he would normally have never seen. Yes he saw it coming, yet his body moved painfully slow in comparison as he tried to evade it. Realization entered his mind, he was going to get hit and there was nothing he could do about it. This was not something he wanted to accept, but accept or not it was going to happen. So he watched as he tried to avoid it, but felt the results of his failure. He felt the kick first brushing his clothing. Then as it pressed deeper until he could feel it against his skin. Then as it applied what felt like gradual but steadily harder pressure until it started to hurt. Then apply more pressure after that. In a way you could compare it to someone vastly stronger than yourself slowly letting a giant rock down on to you. They could do it gentle as they want but eventually it will start to hurt.

And then as quickly as his surge of mental clarity started, it ended, and Naruto was sent flying through the air for a distance until he landed and rolled to a rough stop. Naruto shook his head trying to understand what had just happened. Despite the force of the blow, the pain was actually pretty small. He had been sent quite the distance for not having hardly been hurt. Getting back to his feet Naruto rushed towards Tanaka, determined to prove that he was capable of doing such a simple thing as touching him.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hinata also charging in, he smiled. He may not have spent a lot of time with Sakura, but he knew at least Hinata would know his mindset enough to be able to have a general idea of his plans as he made them. Getting close to Tanaka, Naruto threw a right hand punch as hard as he could, not really expecting it to make contact. It didn't. However he put enough force into it that as it missed he continued the spin his body had begun into. Next he brought up his right leg using the same force he had used earlier to his advantage, and sent a sideways kick using his entire body weight behind it. This missed as well, but Naruto wasn't done yet. Forming a hand sign in midair he brought out his greatest weapon. **Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!**

A shadow clone appeared below him. Naruto and the clone pressed their feet and hands to each other in pushed away from each other, sending the clone into the ground, and Naruto into the air towards Tanaka. Naruto was doing a back flip which he turned into a overhead kick aimed at Tanaka. As Tanaka came into his vision he saw him avoiding rapid strikes from Hinata. Naruto grinned as he delivered his kick full force at the crimson clothed man. Tanaka however simply reached up as if it took no effort and placed his hand on the back of Naruto's foot, stepped back slightly, and sent his kick towards Hinata. Naruto's grin turned to horror as he realized he was powerless to stop himself from impacting Hinata. He curled his leg in on himself trying to minimize the impact, and do as little damage to her as possible.

Hinata however saw the entire thing, and her quick reflex's managed to get her out of harms way, even if just barely. Naruto let out a breath of relief when he didn't hit Hinata. She helped him to his feet and they both turned towards Tanaka, who was apparently being harassed by Sakura.

However the most noticeable difference between Sakura and Naruto and Hinata was, that Sakura simply wasn't as good at close combat. Sakura was the type of person many would call a bookworm. She was incredibly good at learning techniques, and all sorts of things. She could preform many of those techniques with extreme efficiency, but actual combat was a bit different. She knew the motions, and could preform them with enough precision that it could easily get her an A+ in class, but combining those fighting moves in reality with enough variation to create an effective fighting style was not something she found as easy as Naruto and Hinata. The individual techniques were easy, but combing them was not.

And any casual observer would be able to tell that by watching her fight Tanaka. Well, anyone BUT Naruto and Hinata. They simply saw Sakura attacking Tanaka, and they swiftly joined her. Naruto used the hand seal that formed his familiar jutsu. **Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!** One clone appeared and Naruto used said clone to give him a boost and leaped into the air towards Tanaka. Using the shadow clone jutsu again he created six more clones to finalize his assault. **Naruto Avalanche!** A barrage of Naruto's rained down towards Tanaka. Alas, Sakura did not have Hinata's all seeing eyes, and therefore didn't notice his barrage until to late. Tanaka merely tripped Sakura and jumped out of the way. It ended with a dog pile with Sakura on the bottom. Her rage could be heard throughout the training fields. "**NARUTO!!**"

Meanwhile as Naruto had been sent flying from the first impact, so had the other two. Unlike Naruto neither of the others had seen the kick coming. Hinata would have had she activated her Byakugan, however she had been in the middle of the handseals to activate it when she was hit. Hinata recovered and re-did the hand seals to activate her bloodline limit. Her eyes turned a whiter hue than normal and the veins around her eyes stood out clearly on the side of her head. Her vision extended and things became much clearer than normal. She could see in nearly three hundred and sixty degrees around her. Everything came into focus. She saw Naruto get back to his feet, and rush towards Tanaka to gain retribution for the first kick. She followed his lead, determined to back him up and help him gain an early hit.

Hinata watched Naruto charge in and used a unique combination to try and pull off a hit. Hinata settled for attempting to force him to shift his guard with high speed strikes towards his legs, so Naruto could gain a hit on his upper body. Tanaka almost appeared to be dancing as he avoided both of their attacks with apparently no effort.

Hinata saw Tanaka redirect one of Naruto's kicks towards her. She jumped sideways to avoid him and then helped him to his feet afterwards. A slight distance away she saw Sakura attempting to lay a blow of her own on him with no more success than they had. She turned her head towards Naruto and nodded to herself. He would be charging in again. She would charge as well but strafe off to one side slightly, to take advantage of Tanaka being forced to dodge Naruto's assault.

Hinata sped towards him and leaped to the side, then sent a flurry of attacks as he stepped back from Naruto's assault. Naruto and a pile a clones managed to bury Sakura in what looked to be a fairly painful situation.

Naruto picked himself up and found himself having to run to avoid Sakura trying to kill him. Hinata sighed watching the two. She lamented that there was nothing she could do about it. However knowing Sakura would come to her senses eventually Hinata turned herself back towards Tanaka. She might not be able to do it alone but she would do what she could and try to learn something about how he fought during that time.

She noticed that up till now he had not really used his hands. Or the dark wires connecting them at the finger tips. To her eyes it was clear that they were reinforced by chakra. Which meant the possibilities of the things he could do with them were greatly increased. Slipping a kunai out of her pouch she sped towards him, attempting to gain insight on just what his specialty was. Striking towards his legs with her left hand she began a spin that used the momentum of her own miss to increase the speed of her right hand towards his face. Not surprisingly he avoided that as well, however she reversed her spin and swept her left leg back around and tried to kick his legs out from under him. He jumped in the air to avoid the sweep, and she smiled. In reality his position lost him some valuable maneuvering ability. While true someone of his skill would never lose to someone of hers just because of that, she didn't have to win. All she needed was one hit. Shifting the hilt in her hand she threw her kunai at him and prepared to follow up with another flurry of strikes.

Then she saw just how versatile his wires were. They were in fact not wires. But a liquid that retained form using chakra. One of her chakra filled strikes cut a wire and instead of it snapping like a normal wire, it merely flowed around her strike and reformed as if she hadn't hit it at all. However it had left a slight residue on her hand. By knowing what formed the wires she decided that it may give her a small advantage. Sniffing it slightly her expression turned to shock. His "wires" were made up of blood.

Tanaka smiled seeing her expression. She had figured it out fairly quickly. He had gone against jounins who hadn't figured it out to this day. But then not much could break his wires. Her families Gentle fist style gave her a slight advantage over many others against him. Oh yes a Hyuuga would be a great addition to the team. He wondered vaguely if she would fight on his side or against him when he came face to face with his ultimate target. The man he needed to kill would surely sway some of those loyal to Konoha to himself. Tanaka was sure of it. He just hoped that he got to keep a select few loyal to Konoha and himself, to take the man down.

Hinata saw Tanaka's lips twist slightly after she had figured out what his "wires" were made of. Well she wasn't sure exactly what emotion he may be feeling now, but one thing she knew for sure. That was NOT a smile. Up till now he had shown almost as much emotion as a rock. Suddenly seeing that odd twisting of his lips she wasn't sure she wanted to see ANY emotions from the man. She had a feeling it would be the most terrifying experience or her life.

Suddenly she saw Naruto coming into her field of vision, having apparently given Sakura the slip. He was coming from a direction that wouldn't allow Tanaka to see him. Hinata smiled inwardly. If she could keep Tanaka's attention long enough maybe they could pull a fast one on him. Hinata began a flurry of attacks as fast as she could, attempting to draw all his attention to her. It's one thing for a jounin to block or evade all attacks from a Hyuuga, as that or not that difficult considering she was a genin. However to only evade the attacks is a bit more difficult, and requires more concentration. After all one of the Hyuuga clan who specializes in close combat, even a genin is difficult to just evade. Of course Tanaka wasn't just a jounin. He had been Anbu at one point. That being said he was able to avoid all her attacks and make it look easy. Of course it wasn't after all. Evading without taking a single hit was taking quite a bit of concentration. But he was by far a seasoned enough ninja to notice Naruto sneaking up behind him trying to get close without him noticing. The only thing that troubled him was that he had no clue where Sakura was.

Tanaka leaped in the air and did a somersault to avoid Naruto's assault from behind. As he landed both Naruto and Hinata charged him, Naruto forming hand seals. **Shadow Clone Jutsu**! Naruto made two clones of himself and began another assault on Tanaka. However Tanaka noticed something odd about Naruto's movements. His body language was different than normal. It was... delicate? Tanaka threw a kick towards one of the Naruto's, but it went through him. A clone? But not a shadow clone. That meant... Sakura! The 'Naruto' smirked and poofed into Sakura. Which meant the real Naruto was... Sensing movement from behind Tanaka barely got his arm up in time to block a strike from Naruto.

The young teens stepped back away from him smiling at each other They had landed a blow. They passed the class. Tanaka smiled inwardly to himself. Yes these 'tools' would do nicely. All he had to do was train them to meet their potential, and be loyal to him. Then when the day came he was to face the 'that man', he could win. Since 'that man' was a relative of one of his pupils he could use all of their skills to disable him. With their aid he could do it. He was sure. He would kill that man. Justice would be served.

-Timeskip: One month later

Kamibatsu continued to track his prey. It was fairly difficult as they passed through several towns, and some of them split of. He investigated each and every one, but it turned out his prey stayed with the main group. He had lost time tracking those who branched off, but he was taking no chances of a trail growing cold because he ignored it. It occurred to him in hindsight he could have used shadow clones to follow the other trails. But he had not thought of it at the time. He was to focused. Anger was clouding his thoughts he knew, but he didn't care. He would catch them, it was only a matter of time.

Reaching a gate he realized he had caught up. They had stopped at this estate. Apparently this noble was fairly wealthy. He had actual walls and a gate that could withstand most things short of a battering ram. Not that he really considered it an obstacle. In his mind, nothing was an obstacle, just a hindrance. Approaching the gate one of the guards called out. "Halt! Who goes there?" Kamibatsu kept walking.

He could hear one of them breathing in, and opening his mouth to speak again, when Kamibatsu interrupted him. "Stand aside and open the gate, and I will let you live." Hearing them laugh he remembered that he was still in the form of a child. Far from intimidating. Nonetheless it did give him a few advantages as well. Besides he didn't really WANT anyone to cooperate with him. He WANTED to kill them. His blood lust filled him to the brim, and it needed to be let loose.

The guard who had spoke earlier spoke again. "Yes your very threatening little boy. Tell you what, run along on your merry little way, and my buddy here won't be forced to impale you on his spear." After all who would feel threatened by an unarmed little boy? Certainly not these tough guards who trained with weapons on a daily basis. They would learn better. Their blood would teach them.

Kamibatsu kept walking. The second guard decided enough was enough. No one would punish him for killing this kid, after all. He WAS ignoring them and trespassing. He waited till Kamibatsu got close enough to be within reach of his spear. Then he stabbed. Kamibatsu knocked it aside with his left hand and caught the shaft. Then using his right hand he punched through the shaft and spun stabbing the spear tip through the unfortunate fellow. While the other guard stood there gaping at his friend suddenly bleeding on the ground, Kamibatsu rushed close and jabbed his hand into the throat of the man still standing, crushing his windpipe. Satisfied hearing the man gasp for air that simply wasn't coming anymore Kamibatsu faced the gate. Debating on if he should destroy it or simply go over it he decided destroying it would be more satisfactory. And leaping over a wall made you a target for archers. Not that he considered them a danger either. Nothing here was a danger to him. These were mere mortals.

Secura Moriachi sipped his sake peacefully. Everything was just perfect. He had a small army worth of troops, enough to make sure no other nobles tried to impose on his territory. And as his personal bodyguards, he had three missing nin hired on permanently. He had all he needed in luxury here, and any time he got bored with the girls that he had taken, he would go out with his troops to the nearby villages and 'acquire' more. After all if they wanted his protection, they needed to do as he told them. Of course this recent trip had taken about a month as he had already 'acquired' all the pretty girls in the villages that were closer.

His ninja were sitting in the corner of the room playing a game of some kind. They acted lazy, but he knew better. He had seen them in action. Their skills put them up to the rank jounin back in their village, and their leader had been Anbu... whatever that was. All he knew was that it meant he was an elite of some kind. Titles aside these men stood apart from any normal men in his army. He never knew exactly what village they hailed from but he supposed it didn't matter.

Just as he was feeling totally relaxed one of the doors opened, and the man in charge of his messenger pigeons walked in. "M'lord, trouble to the north. The village of Sa' Eelor has been razed to the ground. The flames burn as we speak, with an intensity that prevents anyone from coming close, but it seems there were no survivors." Secura ground his teeth. He had just been there. And a razed village meant no more collecting from it. Clenching his cup tightly he forced himself to relax. After all on the good side he had managed to get the best looking girls from there out before it was lost. Technically he had saved them. He chuckled to himself, his own humor amused him greatly. He decided on how to make the most of the event. He could spread news that an army was invading and that he would send out his soldiers to protect any village which paid double their dues. Yes that would work. He turned towards the messenger and opened his mouth to tell him what he needed to do, when a large explosion sounded throughout the entire building.

Turned around he looked out the front towards the gates, from his balcony. Well, towards where the gates had been. Right now they were shattered pieces laying on the ground. Was an invasion more realistic that he had thought? No. There was no army waiting outside rushing to attack them. No indeed. No all he saw was a single man walking over the rubble as impassively as if they were a regular part of the ground. Squinting his eyes he realized not even a man. But a mere boy. Had that child done this? No, impossible. Unless perhaps he had dynamite. That would explain a lot however it was hard to come by. Explosive tags were easier but they didn't have enough power to cause something this size. He knew that because after all, he purchased a lot of different weapons for his army.

His army was gathering below preparing for battle, despite not seeing more than one possible enemy. Yes they were well trained. He raised his voice, to be heard below. Who are you, and how dare you destroy my property. Do you seek death so badly?"

The boy said something to low to be heard by Secura, but then he spoke up. "Yes, death is what I seek. I must have it. I must have vengeance. Tell me great lord, are you the one who took girls from the village of Sa' Eelor about a month ago?" Secura affirmed that he had indeed done so, for the price of his protection. The boy spoke again. "So you take things that are not your, as protection that you don't actually give. It seems you are not a very good lord after all. After all, where was your protection when the village was attacked? Everyone but me was killed... your so called protection is as empty as your title!"

Outraged Secura prepared to tell him how he had in fact saved those girls from the village by bringing them away, but he decided against it. He owed nothing to this boy. And that child's impudence was insulting. Raising his voice again he spoke. "I have no need to explain the things of the world to a mere child. MEN! Kill him!" Leaning back against a pillar he sipped his sake, and prepared to watch this boy get torn apart. He watched as the archers on the walls turned their bows on him, and the pikemen surrounded him to keep him from being able to escape. The boy obviously realized it was futile, and didn't even try to move from the spot. "Archers, LOOSE!" Arrows rained down on the child and Secura smiled to himself, yes a little blood always did make on feel better. He waited for the corpse to fall to the ground after being stuck with nearly a hundred arrows. And waited. And waited. Suddenly one thing became apparent. That was no corpse.

Kamibatsu began to laugh. He was vaguely aware that the laugh sounded strange, as several arrows were stuck in his throat. And then there was the pain. Yes he felt those things, but they were distant. Like something he could see in the distance but to far to really effect him in any way. Yes he laughed because he was watching the faces of the pikemen in front of him. Here he was, a practical pin-cushion of arrows, and he was still alive. More so his demonic blood was fully active. So the arrows began to be eaten away by the acidic like composition of it. One by one, then in clumps the arrows fell away, the ends melted off, and the wounds healed. His heightened hearing could make out the whispers among the men. Humans couldn't take something like that and survive, it simply wasn't possible. So what was he?

Generally Kamibatsu tried to avoid people thinking or knowing him to be a demon, but now was not one of those times. Their fear would permeate the air, and make it sweet, as it mixed with the scent of their blood. The archers began to re-nock arrows for a second volley, but they were of no notice to him. The first ones to die, would be the ones in front of him. He would feed greatly today. Some of the pikemen charged towards him perhaps hoping that their weapons would succeed where the arrows had failed. They paid for their arrogance, as they were burned alive in the fire that streamed from his mouth. The rest hesitated seeing their comrades die. "Kill him!" Obeying the order of their leader they charged in. Kamibatsu smiled. Let the blood flow freely. Reaching down to his hip he summoned a weapon that was sealed there. A lasher. Whirling it around his head he let loose, enjoying the death cries of the men that he tore to pieces.

Secura stood on his balcony just barely managing to avoid gaping. Even from here he could see the blood of his men in the air as the 'boy' fought them like a demon. His dark laughter shook Secura to his bones. What had he had the misfortune of finding? Then one of his ninja spoke. "Ah, so he is a ninja then. He must have used a combination **Earth style: Earth clone jutsu** combined with the **replacement jutsu**. Or something similar. He seems to be quite skilled. But don't worry, its nothing me and my partners can't handle." The ninja called Misaki motioned to his team mates. And together they leaped down onto the grounds below. Secura sighed in relief, for a moment he had thought they were facing someone beyond a mere mortal. But then ninja's managed to seem that way on frequent occasions. But that boy was only one ninja, and these were three, and they were full grown men. Yes everything was in his hands once again.

Kamibatsu finished the group of men surrounding him and noticed three others coming towards him. But they were different. He could tell by the fluctuations of their chakra, these men knew how to use jutsu. These were ninja. The meaningless slaughter would have to stop momentarily. The archers had ceased firing. Either they realized how useless it was, or they didn't want to hit the newcomers. Either way he did feel a small measure of relief. After all regenerating was simple, but the amount of chakra he had funneled into regenerating made it difficult to use jutsu at the same time. With them no longer firing at him, he could become more offensive.

By their walking postures he recognized their roles right away. The middle one was the leader, that much was clear. The one on the left was support, and the one on the right was the pointman. He would charge first, while the other two followed behind. Probably the other two would hang back a bit while the pointman tested his speed and strength. He would use that to his advantage.

As he guessed the pointman charged in while the other two circled around to watch for openings and observe his fighting style. The pointman drew a kunai from his pouch and stabbed at kamibatsu's stomach, obviously not planning on it actually hitting, he was trying to force a reaction so he could see what kind of fighter Kamibatsu was. So Kamibatsu did the unexpected. He didn't dodge. Instead he used his left hand to catch the pointmans hand after the stab pierced him, and kept him from moving away. In a blur his right hand caught the throat of the pointman in an iron grip. Leaning closer as if the kunai didn't exist he smiled, and jerked his hand away, bringing a portion of the mans throat with it. The pointmans eyes widened in shock as he tried to draw air into his lungs but only succeeded in getting blood. He took a few shaky steps back before collapsing on the ground. The other two watched impassively, suddenly smelling much more cautious.

Misaka told his remaining man to see if there was anything he could do for their pointman, despite his feelings that there was probably nothing to be done. After all you had to check. But he kept his eyes on the young boy across from him. The boy had what seemed to be a permanent smirk on his face, as if he found the very idea of someone standing up to him funny. A part of Misaka didn't blame him. If you could take a Kunai to the belly, and then rip someones throat out with one hand, and look as if nothing had happened... well it wasn't surprising he was cocky. Obviously this boy was used to everything being easy. Well Misaka was no easy kill, and many ninja had learned that the hard way. Well Misaka's remaining partner had a specialty. Disruption.

Misaka's remaining partners name was Kurugi. And Kurugi had trained to be able to disrupt the enemies vision, hearing, and charka. It made them offbalance, and made it difficult to use jutsu. Having Kurugi get closer was merely a ploy. True he did intend to have him check on their fallen comrade, just not yet. The range on his abilities was not very long, which was its greatest weakness. But so far, no one who was entrapped by it had escaped.

Kamibatsu waited as the supportman got closer. He doubted the man would attack him like the pointman had done. He probably was just going to check on his ally, although Kamibatsu doubted the man would live more than a few moments. He felt a surge of chakra, and suddenly realized that the target was not the fallen pointman but himself. Unable to tell what kind of jutsu it was he recovered the lasher from the ground and lashed out to cleave the man in two. And two the man became, only not to halves, but two wholes. He was seeing double, of course he wasn't actually 'seeing' as he was using his hearing but it was having the same effect. And others as well. His chakra flow was becoming distorted, making it impossible to use that for backup vision. And his sense of balance was skewered. At the moment he could barely stand up straight. Even shifting one foot nearly made him fall to the ground. Long ago he had considered the possibility of having to fight in a situation such as this, but he had never come up with a reliable method to do it.

He knew for certain he would be unable to use any jutsu, but he did have one edge they would be unlikely to know of. Despite outward appearances his body was made differently on the inside. The jutsu that made him appear human was just that, appearance. Unlike human organs his organs would not fail just by being damaged. And he was missing a few organs that actual humans had, while having some that they did not. One of the organs that he had was elemental lungs. All dragons had a fire lung, and their second lung was based on their element. The second lung could breath fire of that element, although it took training to be able to use it. The fire could be used regardless of chakra manipulation. In other words despite the situation he could still breath fire, although without being able to use chakra to enhance it, the amount was vastly smaller than normal. He couldn't afford to waste it. Right now he could barely stand upright, much less lash out at a target he could no longer see at all. Everything was a mess of barely formed shapes, he couldn't tell the difference between a wall an a dog at the moment.

Attempting to guard himself as much as he could, he crouched down on one knee, and had the lasher coiled in a circle around him at his feet. He might not be able to see anything, but if they came in close, them just the right movement on his part would rip them to shreds. But they had sense enough to stay at a distance. Misaka circled at a safe distance, and began to attack with shurikens and kunai, while Kurugi maintained his jutsu. Kamibatsu felt the twinge of pain as they hit him one by one. He couldn't afford to try and dodge, lest he lost his balance altogether. Eventually he noticed the mistake Misaka was making. He had stopped circling as he threw. He now stood in one place to continue his assault. It was a safe assumption for most people to make that with their opponent was unable to see their opponent in any way, that moving was not needed. But Kamibatsu was using another method of locating him. The direction that the projectiles were coming from. Admittedly this was taking longer than he had hoped, but despite not being able to mold chakra at the moment, he could still regenerate fairly effectively, and his demonic blood ate away at the projectiles that stuck in him.

He considered the options available to him. He could play dead, but that would ruin the image he had built up to this point of being an unstoppable juggernaut. He could lash out wildly in hopes of getting them, but the odds of missing were to high, and then they would start moving again, and ruin his chances of getting them almost entirely. His best chance was to make them reveal themselves. Misaka had stopped moving, and he knew the direction he was in, however the distance was a problem, as he didn't know how far away he was. Then an idea came to him. He began to work his fire lung. Taking the sand beneath him he cupped some into his hands and began to blow on it. As it began to heat it began to melt. Already it was hot enough that it would leave third degree burns on any human who was touched by it. Kamibatsu kept blowing.

Misaka and Kurugi watched their target kneel closer to the ground, and begin breathing harder. His weapon lay at his feet as if forgotten. It could be a trick, and in other circumstances Misaka would thoroughly expect it to be one, however being unable to see, hear, or use chakra in any way, anyone would be near the end of their rope. Misaka had seen the man healing his wounds before, but now being unable to mold chakra it would put a stop to that. He continued his assault, seeing more and more wounds bleeding freely. If the man didn't bleed to death soon, then Misaka might have to get in close enough to stab him in the vital organs. He had faced a few men before who were so hyped up on drugs that even after they had lost so much blood that they stopped bleeding, yet they kept on as if it was nothing. They only way to take them down was to actually destroy their internal organs.

Kamibatsu continued to heat this sand, as it turned to glass. Using his thumb he kept the middle hollow, until he had a casing with one hole in it. Despite the fact that he had many injuries bleeding freely he didn't take blood from them, he bit his thumb and let the blood fill up the glass container till he could feel it flowing over. Then he began to heat it again. He continued till even his heat resistant blood began to boil, and the skin on his hands began to feel the searing heat. Then he heated it more. The blood began to boil violently, till it began to spill over the side. Smiling to himself, he pinched the top closed, and let it cool a bit. Then he suddenly threw it in the air, taking one of the few kunai he kept unsealed in his pockets, he threw it up in the same exact path as he had thrown the blood filled glass ball. Then it hit. Due to the force of the impact, and the incredibly hot temperature of the blood, it exploded, sending his blood scattering across the area, getting bit of it on everything around. Including Misaka.

Now human blood is actually one of the most corrosive agent known to man, short of actual acid, however getting human blood on yourself wont hurt you in the slightest. Demonic blood which is much more corrosive, and even acidic however has a much lower effect on human skin, than it does on inanimate objects. Which isn't to say that it wont do anything, just that it will take time. Misaka had seen the effects on the weapons however and immediately wiped it off on his clothes. But it didn't change anything as far as Kamibatsu was concerned. He had accomplished his first goal. Then he began the second stage of his plan. Leaping into the air he let loose every bit of fire he had in both lungs, down towards the ground. The shadow flame devoured everything in its path. Both Misaka and Kurugi were both able to avoid it easily, which had been the main reason Kamibatsu didn't want to use it like this before, but his plans had changed. Most of the surrounding soldiers who had been watching the fight were not as fast as Misaka and Kurugi had been, and they paid the price for it.

Landing on the ground shakily Kamibatsu sniffed the air. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, but the smell he was looking for lingered. His own blood stood out sharply to his heightened sense of smell. But this scent was moving around. Was it the ninja? Or simple some soldiers? He wasn't sure, but the results were the same, he had a target. Balancing himself on all fours he crouched. Standing on two legs was difficult, but walking that way was impossible. At least for now. On all fours however he could manage to move properly. The scent of his blood was in multiple directions, so he picked one and charged after it. He couldn't hear the sounds of surprise that escaped the lips of the surviving soldiers who had not been devoured by his black flames, but he smelled their fear, and that marked their locations just as good as his blood had. Reaching one, he felt a spear impale his stomach. Well, it certainly wasn't the only injury he had incurred this fight, but they were definitely beginning to stack up. Nonetheless he reached along the mans arm and found his face. Grabbing the man by his hair he reached down with his teeth and tore out the mans throat. The fear smell sharpened considerably in the others, and he noticed it it in a few locations, that were not marked by his blood. He smiled had laughed a laugh that was meant to curdle the blood of any who heard it. It worked pretty effectively. One by one he sought out the targets, and killed them. Each time he incurred wounds that would heal much more slowly than they had at the beginning of this fight. But he shrugged it off. All he needed was the two ninjas dead, then he could use chakra again.

Misaka continued to move as he watched the man... no beast, in human form kill soldiers in this bizarre and grotesque fashion. He shouldn't be able to hardly move, yet he moved as an animal, as used to walking on all fours, as any human was to walking on two legs. Not to mention the major thing, that he shouldn't be able to see, yet one by one he was moving towards and killing everything in the courtyard. For just a moment he felt a sharp twinge of fear, but he stamped it down immediately. He was no farm boy to believe he was facing a demon simple because the man was very unusual. He was not certain what this mans bloodline limit was, but he was sure he possessed some kind that allowed him to do this unnatural feats. It was the only explanation. Nonetheless he was not about to lose his cool because of that. After all, he was a professional.

Kamibatsu smelled it. It wasn't unusual. A spike of fear coming from another person. What was unusual however was when it disappeared. It was a simple feat for most men, to hide their fear underneath the surface, so it wasn't visible. But this didn't hide the smell. For someone to actually squash their fear like an unwanted bug, that was the mark of a professional. He had found one of the ninja. If he was lucky, it was the one maintaining the jutsu, but it was probably the other one. Found you. "Ah I forgot about you. When I become this hungry I tend to forget minor nuisances. Allow me to apologize by giving you my undivided attention. Kamibatsu smiled as he said it. If he gave the impression that was wasn't effected by their jutsu, they would drop it, to conserve chakra for something that worked. Of course they might not drop it, but anything to increase his chances, was worth a try.

Misaka started. So he really could still see. Perhaps he was one of those clans that mixed DNA with animals, or something of the sort. Or perhaps he had a link to someone else, who was observing unnoticed. Whichever it was, the odds were that the jutsu still hindered him, just the question was, was the effort required worth the results they got back? Or would another jutsu be a more effective use for Kurugi's chakra? He wasn't completely sure yet, however his thinking was cut off short, as his opponent charged.

Kamibatsu was getting used to moving like this. He always adapted quickly to solutions, once they were found. He would never be able to "see" as effectively with his sense of smell as he could with his hearing, or chakra, and certainly not near as good as some of those tracking demons who used only their sense of smell, as they lacked ears, or the intelligence to use chakra. But he could still "see" his opponent, if only just a vague shape. His sense of balance was enough that he could move swiftly on all fours as well. Then he charged. Attacking with his fingers curled like claws, he swiped at his opponent, getting him to move unwittingly towards the general location where he had left the lasher. Of course he didn't actually intend to hit him, as he didn't have claws out right then. That would take chakra to release, which he couldn't do right then. However his enemy didn't want to get hit, as he was unsure what threat the bare hands might mean. Then Kamibatsu felt it. The heat radiating from the metal of his lasher on the ground. He had left it on the ground when he leaped upwards, and it was scalding to the touch. Had it not been forged in the very fire he used on it this time, it would have likely melted. Any normal weapon would have. Snagging the handle he pulled and lashed out with it, the wicked segmented pieces ripping through his opponent's body like a rag doll, even as the smell of his flesh became charred from the heat of the metal lasher.

Kurugi shuddered. He was running low on chakra, and Misaka had just died due to not wanting to use jutsu, as doing so could disrupt the jutsu Kurugi was maintaining on their target. Now he had a choice. Either maintain a jutsu that was proving to be less than effective, until he ran out of chakra, and then be defenseless. Or use his remaining chakra to escape, he was nowhere near as good at close combat as Misaka had been. If Misaka had been killed by a man who should by all rights be unable to mold chakra, see, or even hear anything. Then what chance did Kurugi himself stand after the jutsu was gone? Not enough to risk his life, after losing two comrades. Quickly forming several handseals he disappeared from the courtyard, and reappeared outside a short distance away. This wasn't a matter of honor, besides he was a missing nin. This wasn't the first time he had run from battle.

Kamibatsu blinked suddenly as he could see again. Everything came flooding back to him, seeming crystal clear, after the hazy vision of using only his sense of smell. Objects he hadn't smelled at all were suddenly in places he didn't remember them being. There we a few soldiers left, but they seemed more confused about what to do that anything else. That battle with the ninja's had cooled his temper slightly. It had required him to think. And to think clearly you could not let angry cloud your thoughts. He began to channel his chakra again to create the waves that he was so used to doing without thinking, to improve on his "vision" that he got from sound. Extending several of the waves up towards the balcony he sensed Secura standing there still, probably in a state of shock. Kamibatsu smiled to himself. Well he had pretty much thrown things through a blender. The wounds on his body couldn't possibly be counted, many bleeding profusely. He concentrated his chakra into healing himself, and his numerous wounds began to knit themselves together at a speed that left the soldiers gaping. And then he stood there. Clothes torn, and blood covering his body, without a single scratch on him. Yes that would make even the most battle hearty soldier hesitant.

Kamibatsu formed a handseal. Ten shadow clones appeared. And he sent them off to do that which he felt he had to little time to do himself. Three of them went on a search and kill of the remaining soldiers, while four went searching for his beloved sister. Of course he had each of them put on a mask, so they would not be recognized by her or any of the girls. Then he had two of remaining clones seal off the floor with Secura. He wanted to be alone with him. The final clone he sent on a special mission.

Secura stood rooted in place as he watched his ninja fight the person below. At first it looked like they were winning, however the tables suddenly turned and two were dead, and the third gone somewhere. Then the man had duplicated himself, and split up in different directions. His men couldn't face one of the man, how could they face eleven? Then suddenly he heard a voice behind him. He turned around resigned to his fate, but the words that were spoke surprised him.

"You seem to be a bit surprised. Does it really surprise you that much to know your protection isn't worth paying for? You are too weak. Mere mortals are always too weak. But I could make you stronger. I could give you power unlike anything you could possibly imagine. I could give you enough power to make the entire world kneel at your feet. The real question is, do you want it?"

Secura stared at the face of the person who had slaughtered his entire army, and his specially trained ninja. Someone like this could offer him power beyond that of his rival lords. Perhaps even enough to own an entire country. He licked his lips thinking on all the possibilities. His imagination grew and expounded making plans on all the different things he could do. He ended up panting in excitement. "Name your price. Whatever it is you want I shall give it to you. I doubt you want money, but if that is what you want, then you shall have it. Anything. Name it."

Kamibatsu smiled. Then replied. "Well it's good to see your ambitious. But there is no way in hell I would actually give you anything of the sort. The only thing I shall give you is an eternity of pain. This jutsu you are about to see is used to rip a soul from its body. I will then devour your soul, and digest it for an eternity. I assure you... it will be very painful." The greed in Secura's eyes turned to horror. And throughout the entire grounds, his screams were heard above all others.

One of the shadow clones searching for Mikoto was ecstatic when he found her in one of the rooms. He had felt the yearning for her as keenly as if he was the original. Making sure his voice deeper than normal he called to her. "Mikoto, I am here to help you escape. Your brother will meet you outside, I shall escort you to him."

She turned and looked at him. "Kamibatsu? Is that you?" It killed him inside to shake his head no. In fact he was telling the truth, he wasn't Kamibatsu. He was just a shadow clone. "I'm sorry." She said. "It just... felt like you were him." He shivered resisting the urge to pull her into a hug. He settled for taking her hand and pulling her after him, to the designated location. She saw the bodies littering the floors as they walked past. She didn't know what was going on, but she understood now was not the place to ask questions.

Getting outside the clone used a signal to alert the rest he had found her, then he continued on. Normally he could simply dispel himself, however doing so would leave her alone. And he refused to take such a risk. Reaching the point he heard the voice of the original call out. "Mikoto!" The real Kamibatsu walked towards where they stood, stumbling just enough to still appear as clumsy as ever. The clone passed her to the real one, and walked off back towards the courtyard grounds. In a hurry to finish up killing so he could dispel himself. Once his consciousness returned to the original he could share in the enjoyment of being with Mitoko.

Mikoto embraced Kamibatsu happy to see him. "I'm so glad to see you. But you really shouldn't have come. I am going to return to the grounds shortly. Its part of the agreement to keep our village safe."

Kamibatsu sighed. Then he replied. "Mikoto, the village was destroyed not long ago. Everyone in the village at the time was killed. Secura didn't do anything to protect us. Payment is pointless unless he fulfills his side of the bargain. You owe him no obligation."

Mikoto stood in shock taking in what he said. Should could feel that he was telling the truth. She always knew when he was telling truth or not. And what he said was true. The village was gone. After a moment she managed to get out. "Do you know who did it? Do you know who killed everyone?"

Kamibatsu sighed again. "I was away when you were taken. I clearly remember hearing the flames that engulfed the village. However I didn't see any bandits or an army or anything. But then I don't exactly see anything period. I'm sorry Mikoto, but I don't think we will have any vengeance against them. From the rumors around the nearby villages, many believe it was someone who was looking for Secura, and when they found he wasn't there they took it out on the village. Others say a demon went on rampage, and was responsible. It could be any number of things."

Mikoto could tell he was telling the truth, but she felt he hadn't said everything. "What is it your not telling me? Do you have an idea of who it might be? Your not protecting them for some reason are you?"

Kamibatsu replied. "Yes Mikoto, I have a few idea's of who it might be. But I won't tell you. For good reason. When I returned to the village and found out what happened, I was enraged. I wanted nothing more than vengeance. But I am calmer now. I will always feel anger at what happened that day. But it's time to move on. Vengeance won't bring the dead back to life. And I won't risk losing you to anyone, for any reason. I need you Mikoto. Not just someone to see what I cannot, but as the only person I care about who is still alive. I can't lose you." He skirted the truth neatly without telling a single lie.

Mikoto held onto him crying silently. He was right she knew. Vengeance wouldn't bring the dead back to life. And with everyone gone she couldn't bear to lose Kamibatsu any more than he could bear to lose her. After a time she stopped crying. He was right they needed to move on. She was proud he had managed to find where she was despite being blind, and had found some allies to help him in the ways he could not. His pride had always been a problem, and he refused help from anyone but her. The fact that he had obviously swallowed his pride enough to ask help from someone else showed how much he needed her. She would never leave him alone again. She promised herself that.

The final shadow clone continued on his task. The others had finished off everyone in the property of that Secura. He was the only shadow clone who had yet to finish his task. This ninja Kurugi either knew he was being tracked, or was simply very wary. He laid many false trails, and traps. Of course they were only jounin level, and therefore no real threat. Of course he knew he was more vulnerable than the original. After all even a relatively minor injury could dispel him. He had to be cautious. Then he found him. Kurugi was resting. Not surprising really. He had spent a great deal of chakra holding the original in that jutsu. Then he had left and nearly sprinted for about ten miles. Only slowing to lay traps. He looked exhausted. The clone felt a small measure of respect for the man. He had a great deal of stamina for a human.

Hefting the makeshift spear in his hand that he had created during his idle time chasing he took aim. It had started out a mere tree branch. Now it was a deadly projectile, despite having no spearhead. Moving silently he got closer to the weary ninja, then in a rush stabbed the ninja through the middle with such force that the branch became embedded in the tree against which he leaned. The ninja looked up flabbergasted.

Kurugi was shocked. He had anticipated possible pursuit, but not from this man himself. He had been certain the young man was after the girl. If he had chased him that meant he had left her behind. It made no sense at all. Then the young man spoke. "Mission accomplished. No more surviving witnesses. Despite the fact that normally I would stay to watch you die, I have a burning desire to return to ecstasy. Goodbye. **Kai**." Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kurugi realized he had just been killed by a mere shadow clone. The irony was just to funny. He began to laugh in the silence of the forest. He laughed until he no longer had air to laugh with. Then his eyes slowly lost the life in them. And once again the forest was quiet.

**AN: Read and Review! Sorry for taking so long people. I could give all sorts of excuses but the truth is, I was being lazy. That and I had a bad case of writers block for Naruto's fight. I didn't put Gaara in this chapter as I originally intended, but I'll focus on him a bit more next chapter. I'll be starting school next semester, so I have no idea how much time I will have for writing. Possibly more, possibly less. Anyways See you sooner next time probably.**


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